A Second Chance
by Kronos89
Summary: Counter Guardian EMIYA gets a second chance at life after winning the 5th Grail War with an untainted Grail and accepts Caster Merlin's proposal to reincarnate him. Watch as he lives his life as a devil. Rated M for safety.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fate Stay Night or High School DxD. They belong to Kinoko Nasu and Ichiei Ishibumi respectively. If I did, I would have already created an Ilya route in the VN with a fully grown and matured Ilya as the heroine and make a badass protagonist for High School DxD instead of a pervert like Issei.**

**A/N: This is my first fanfic that I've been itching to write ever since I read Thousand Mastery's Kaleid Liner DxD. Please give some constructive criticisms that can improve my writing. Credit goes to fsnfan for helping me fleshing out the details for this prologue and Anthonyl6892 for becoming my beta. Now without further ado. Story start.**

**Update: 12th April 2014**

**- Changed some of my theory on Archer's reincarnation and the conditions and side effects.**

**- Added some more details. Nothing major.**

**- Ryuudouji Temple atop of Mount Enzo, End of the 5th Grail War -**

Six figures stood at the temple grounds facing a certain spot where a collection of high amount of concentrated prana was congregating.

"So, this is it? This is the Holy Grail?" Shirou asked.

"More accurately, this is the Lesser Grail that's supposed to be used by us to grant our wish." Rin answered her husband.

"You mean _your_ and Archer's wish Onee-san. Merlin and I have already forfeited our rights for the Grail remember? Furthermore, Ilya has already lost her Servant and Shirou wasn't a participant in the first place." Sakura said to her sister.

"I'm just glad that the Einzberns were able to figure out a way to create a vessel for the Lesser Grail using a lifeless object instead of using me or one of the other Homunculus. I don't even want to think what would have happened to me if that were the case. I guess I'll have you to thank for that Merlin. The notes on the theory of creating a Lesser Grail from a lifeless object that you left behind after the 4th Grail War was what saved me it seems." A fully grown and matured Ilya said.

"Think nothing of it child. I do not even remember what I did during the last war. After all, both the current me and the one in the previous war were only copies of the real me in the Throne." Merlin answered Ilya like a kind grandfather speaking to his granddaughter.

"Regardless, Rin and I are the victors of this Grail War. Well, it's not like I have a wish of my own that the Grail can grant." Archer or Counter Guardian EMIYA said with a sad smile. After everything that he had experienced and seen in this war, he had already accepted his hellish fate, albeit bitterly.

Everyone except Merlin watched Archer with bitter and sad expressions. This world's Shirou was able to obtain happiness after graduating high school and marrying both Rin and Sakura but this man who is an alternate future version of Shirou would never obtain such happiness. He had sealed his fate when he decided to make a contract with Alaya. Even the power of the Grail as a wishing device couldn't release him from his eternal torment.

It was Rin who discovered Archer's identity when she witnessed his life during the Dream Cycle. Before that, Archer had feigned ignorance of his identity using an excuse such as being a Heroic Spirit from the future that caused an abnormality in the summoning and gave him amnesia. At the time, Rin was suspicious of Archer's claims but she was able to restrain herself from using a Command Seal to force Archer to reveal his identity.

When Archer's lie was exposed and his identity was revealed, he was forced to explain his motives to everyone and why he sought it. His description of the hell he had to go through as a Counter Guardian caused almost everyone from the Tohsaka, Emiya and Matou families and their Servants to put their heads together to find a way to save him from his eternal torment. Unfortunately, no solution was found and everyone was forced to accept that Archer's salvation will be forever out of reach.

Merlin however, had other ideas.

"Don't be so quick to give up boy. I might have a solution for your predicament."

Everyone including Archer looked at Merlin with shocked and surprised faces.

"What? You were the one who said that it wasn't possible for me to annul my contract with Alaya even with the Grail." Archer said in a tone that's bordering on being accusatory.

"Yes, that's right. There is no way for anyone to release EMIYA in the Throne from Alaya's grasp. But my solution isn't for him but _you_." Merlin says patiently while pointing at Archer.

"Explain." Rin said with a frown.

"During the course of the war, I was able to devise a thaumaturgical theory to reincarnate Archer and give him a second chance at life using the Grail. It's not enough to release the actual EMIYA who's in the Throne, but it's enough for me to make the _current_ Archer forever out of Alaya's grasp as long as he is not stupid enough to make another contract with Alaya."

Everyone fell silent after hearing Merlin's explanation. Archer in particular was processing Merlin's words and was contemplating on his options. Archer has long since learned that for everything that is too good to be true, there will always be a catch. They say it's always good to keep an open mind but Archer prefers to be skeptical of any contract that he might enter so that he knows everything of what it entails. A lesson he learned too late after entering a contract with Alaya.

"What are the conditions for the reincarnation to annul Alaya's contract?" Archer asked Merlin trying to be as open minded as possible while at the same time being skeptical of the chance being presented in front of him. Merlin has proven himself to Archer to be trustworthy despite his minor pranking habits during the course of the war, so if Merlin claims to have a way to save him, albeit not completely, Archer will at least listen to his proposal before deciding.

"In order to break your current contract with Alaya, I will be taking advantage of Alaya's currently weakened grasp on you to send your soul to an alternate dimension where Alaya's influence is weaker to the point of almost non-existent. Also, to further weaken Alaya's hold on you; I'm going to make it so your reincarnation will be the same as any other, meaning that you would be wiped clean of all your memories."

"At least, for 16 to 17 years that is. The 16 to 17 years of transition is for the Gaia in that world to recognize your existence as a natural occurrence so that you won't end up being erased. Your current memories will gradually return after that." Merlin continued before anyone could protest.

"However, to fully break the hold Alaya has on you, you will have to work hard and become a proper Heroic Spirit. It's the only way for you to completely annul your contract. Sadly, even if you do become one, it is you who will be freed and not the EMIYA who's currently in the Throne, as the legend that you will inspire is tied to you instead of him as the two of you will by then be considered to be separate entities." Merlin says in a tone that is a mixture confidence and sadness. It looks like he has absolute faith in his theory, but at the same time not being able to do more saddens him.

"Wait. That would require knowledge on the Second Magic. How do you know the workings of the Kaleidoscope?" Rin asked Merlin in a suspicious tone. Currently, she was one of three existing practitioners of the Kaleidoscope. The other two being her mentor Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg and her rival Luviagelita Edelfelt.

"My dear child, it was _easy_ for me who was summoned in the Caster class to get through your Bounded Fields without activating any of them. I advise that you use mundane methods in conjunction with the Bounded Fields next time by the way. Also, with my advanced knowledge on Magecraft, deciphering your notes and reverse engineering them posed no challenge at all. I now know enough to effectively utilize the Second Magic without any problems." Merlin says this in a smug tone.

Rin was both furious and horrified. She had kept her notes on the Second Magic under heavy guards with layer upon layer of Bounded Fields. Now, her sister's Servant had just confessed that her efforts were for nothing. Before Rin could voice out her complaints, she was cut off by Merlin who continued his speech.

"Thanks to that, I have prepared some notes on some theories and calculations that I am sure would be able to assist you in furthering your studies of it." Saying this, Merlin pulled out some papers from his robes and showed it to Rin.

Rin only stared dumbfounded at the papers for a few moments before she forcefully snatched them from Merlin's hands while making sure that the papers weren't damaged from her actions and immediately started to peruse them. Satisfied, she folded the papers and put them inside the coat she was currently wearing. She still glared at Caster however.

"Now, where were we?" Merlin asked while being amused by Rin's actions.

"You were explaining the side effects of reincarnating my soul in an alternate dimension." Archer decides to just move the conversation along before more distractions occur to derail them from their current topic.

"Ah... Yes... Well, actually, this part of my solution is a bit of a gamble I'm afraid." Merlin said in a worried tone that completely contrasts his earlier behaviour.

"What do you mean Merlin?" Sakura asked worriedly seeing her Servant becoming worried for the first time ever since she had summoned him.

"What I mean is that I will have no idea on what kind of life that Archer's reincarnated self might have during the transition. Basically, whether the reincarnated Archer will grow up to be someone who has a desire to do either evil or good during the transition is out of my control. Fortunately, when Archer's current memories start to return, he should be able to take over without any problems."

"Also, as a precaution, I've made it so that all of Archer's memories will return at once if his reincarnated self finds himself in a deadly situation that he could not survive normally. However, if this were to happen during the transition phase, then there is a good chance that the world's Gaia would try to erase him, as Gaia will recognize him as something that should not exist. If such a situation occurs, he will have to make a contract with a Master to supply him with prana in order to exist. Unfortunately, if that happens then he will never succeed in becoming a proper Heroic Spirit and will sooner or later return to the Throne as part of EMIYA again." Merlin answered Sakura's query.

"So whether or not my soul would reincarnate as someone who will grow up to be good or evil is unknown, huh? Not only that, if I'm in a deadly situation where I might die without my abilities before the 16 to 17 years transition phase is up, I'll get my memories back to save myself… but end up dooming myself in the end anyway."

"And by the looks of things you won't even be able to tell me what gender I'll be reincarnated into. That's just great." Archer sarcastically commented. He knew that things were never that easy and it looks like he was right yet again. He's starting to think that the world itself hates him.

"Not to worry. One of the requirements for your soul to reincarnate without problems is that it has to be a male. So you don't have to worry about suddenly becoming a lady." Merlin said.

_Phew._

_I stand corrected; maybe the world doesn't hate me _that_ much after all. Still, it's too early to relax._

"Are there any other side effects? What about my Magecraft?" This will probably be one of the most important factors that he has to take into account when making his decision.

"Naturally, I've already taken your Magecraft into account as well. I'll be able to transfer all your developed Magic Circuits but I have no idea how the rules for Magecraft would behave in that world so you'll have to find that out for yourself. If you're lucky, the rules won't be that different but if not...well, you're going to have to figure out what to do about it on your own."

"Still, just in case, I'm going to make it so that your reincarnated self will start to instinctively be able to grasp how to use your Magic Circuits once you're 5 years old to reduce the chances of you being in a situation that makes all your memories return, although I don't know how much use it will have since we don't know if the rules in that world will allow you to use your Magecraft or not. The only thing I can tell you is that Gaia's influence in that world will also be weaker though perhaps not as weak as Alaya's." Merlin says this to Archer in a tone not unlike a grandfather giving advice to his grandson.

In short, while there won't be any problems with recalling his memories after the 16 to 17 years are up, his Magecraft that he has honed all his life would either be lost to him, even if he still retains all his Magic Circuits, or become stronger as Gaia's influence will be weaker. The two possibilities have no way of being confirmed in advance, so it really will be a gamble whether he will still retain his Magecraft or not. Still, compared to the alternative of him continuing on as a Counter Guardian, Merlin's proposal was much more preferable. At the very least, Merlin's plan will give him a definite chance to realize his wish instead of his grasping at straws at the chance of being summoned in the Holy Grail War of his original world and causing a paradox by killing his actual younger self.

While Archer tries to make up his mind whether to accept Merlin's plan or not, his mind starts to recall the events of the war and everything that he had learned during the war after his summoning.

Everything had at first started around two weeks ago when he, Counter Guardian EMIYA, was summoned by Tohsaka Rin for the 5th Grail War.

For the sake of freeing himself from Alaya's grasp, Archer had bet everything on causing a paradox to eliminate himself from all the worlds. Unfortunately, as soon as he was summoned in the 5th Grail War, he was already aware that this was most likely not the world that he sought for in order to realize his wish.

The first thing that clued him in was that it was 10 years later than the actual date of the 5th Grail War that he was embroiled in during his life. The second clue was not that he was properly summoned by Rin. After all, he was not exactly aware of his own world's Rin's circumstances when she summoned her Servant since they never bothered to discuss about it. No, what clued him in was the other individual present during his summoning as the Servant of the Bow.

Emiya Shirou. The person Archer has to kill to cause the paradox.

Or more accurately, this world's version of Archer's target. It was fortunate that Archer's years of mental discipline allowed him to mask his hostility to this version of his younger self that very instant, lest he reveal his true intentions. Even if he was aware that this version of Shirou was not the one that he sought, Archer would still kill him if this Shirou also desired to walk the same path he did.

Turns out however, he needn't have bothered.

Despite this version of Shirou's desire to become a hero of justice, the battlefield that he had chosen was not the bloody conflicts and wars that Archer had chosen in his life but instead Shirou had chosen the courtroom as his battlefield.

This world's version of Shirou had decided to become a prosecutor to realize his own version of the dream of becoming a hero of justice. He had married both Rin and Sakura five years after their high school graduation and was blessed with three children, two of which were female twins who Rin gave birth to. Both Rin and Sakura also had decided to keep their Magus family names.

Archer was surprised that Rin and Sakura were able to share Shirou, but he decided that it was none of his business.

As long as this Shirou is not a suicidal idiot who travels from one conflict to another to uphold his ideal of saving people, Archer was content to let him live even if he still didn't like Shirou. The fact that Shirou had already created a family for himself just made it easier for Archer to make that decision.

Since his initial objective was already out of his reach, Archer had at first decided to just deal with the malevolent deity, Angra Mainyu, in the Greater Grail and end the war earlier for the sake of sparing the lives of the innocent from becoming victims of the war.

However, Archer's expectations were again derailed as he discovered that the Greater Grail in this world was never tainted by Servant Avenger in the 3rd Grail War. Thus, it was safe to say that the current Grail may be completed safely without worrying about its contents spilling out into the world and killing billions of people. As long as the rest of the other 6 Servants were defeated, the victor will be granted the chance to realize their wishes.

Curious of what happened during the 4th Grail War, Archer had advised Rin to learn as much as she could about the previous war. From what Archer knew, it was only because the Grail was tainted that Anti-Heroes could be summoned by the Grail. How could a Caster that was a proper Heroic Spirit bring such changes to the events he once knew so well?

He was somehow able to convince Rin by telling her that knowledge of previous Grail Wars may be crucial to their victory.

After some investigation, they were able to find out the full events of the 4th Grail War which was supplied by Emiya Kiritsugu. He was somehow still alive and living in Fuyuki with both Irisviel and Ilyasviel. Just as he had surmised, Archer had found out that the events of this world's 4th Grail War really was different than the one he knew. This was mainly due to the identity of the 4th Grail War's Caster which was, ironically, the same Caster that was summoned for the 5th Grail War.

Merlin.

Merlin's summoning had changed much of the 4th Grail War's events. Immediately after his summoning, Merlin killed his Master as his Master was a serial killer. After that, he allied with Kiritsugu as the Saber that Kiritsugu had summoned was still Arturia Pendragon, the King of Knights.

Merlin was able to dispel Lancelot's Mad Enhancement with a meticulously prepared trap when Lancelot revealed himself. This event allowed Lancelot to reconcile with Arturia. Thanks to Merlin's advanced knowledge in Magecraft, the following negotiations with Kariya also went well as the deal only entailed saving Sakura from Zouken which Merlin was able to do almost effortlessly by killing Zouken and destroying all his familiars including those inside Sakura. Merlin had also restored Kariya's body as a token of goodwill.

Tokiomi was still killed by Kirei's betrayal, but Kariya was not framed for it as he would have been had Merlin not convinced Kariya to give up on his grudge on Tokiomi for Sakura's sake. Thanks to this, Aoi relied more on Kariya after the 4th Grail War for moral support and they ended up marrying a few years later. Rin still retained the Tohsaka family name in order to carry on the family's Magecraft but she and Sakura grew up as inseparable sisters. Perhaps that was what allowed them to share Shirou.

As for Gilgamesh, Merlin's advice to Kiritsugu to return Avalon to Arturia was what allowed her to triumph against the arrogant King of Heroes despite him pulling out Ea when he was cornered by the three Servants. Unfortunately, Lancelot and Merlin did not survive Ea's attack as Avalon was only able to protect Arturia. Kirei was then beheaded by Arturia once the Servant he took from Tokiomi was defeated.

As winners of the 4th Grail War, Arturia and Kiritsugu gained the rights to wish upon the Grail but they discovered that Kiritsugu's wish could never be granted even with the Grail's powers. As Kiritsugu fell into despair, Arturia, who by then had already abandoned the notion to wish for a different king to rule in her place thanks to Lancelot's and Merlin's persuasions, wished for the return of Irisviel in order to alleviate Kiritsugu's despair by returning the very woman he had loved.

Arturia's plan worked quite well as Irisviel's return brought hope back to Kiritsugu. Afterwards, as the 4th Grail War finally came to an end, Arturia disappeared. It's most likely that she went to Avalon to finally rest and be freed from her burdens.

As Kiritsugu had realized the Einzbern's lifelong wish to obtain the Grail, Ilya was returned to him and they started living in Fuyuki as a normal family. As a reward for Kiritsugu's success, Jubstacheit also reconfigured Ilya using the notes Merlin left behind on the more advanced knowledge of Coining a Homunculus to give her a lifespan of a normal human and all the perks of being one.

In other words, Ilya's body may continue to mature instead of staying in a body of a 10 year old. Jubstacheit was also able to give her a fully functioning reproduction organ with a libido to match so Ilya won't have any problem if she wants to start a family.

Archer also discovered that Shirou was actually an orphan who was abandoned in an orphanage when he was a baby. He was adopted by Kiritsugu after the events of the 4th Grail War as Shirou seemed to get along well with Ilya when they moved to Fuyuki. Also, Ilya wanted a younger sibling as soon as possible.

As Archer discovered all these heartening information, he started having hopes of using the Grail to annul his contract with Alaya as he no longer has to fear Angra Mainyu's corruption of the Grail.

Alas, Sakura's summoning of Merlin as Servant Caster had crushed his hopes yet again as Merlin reveals that just like Kiritsugu's, Archer's wish was also impossible to grant. Despite this however, Archer decided to do everything he can to win the Grail War for Rin and Sakura as he wanted the people he once cared about that still exists in this world to have the happiness that he couldn't grant them in his original world.

The current 5th Grail War was quite gruesome. Had it not been for Archer's alliance with Merlin and Berserker who was Frankenstein that was summoned by Ilya, Archer very much doubted they would have survived their encounters with some of the current war's Servants.

Siegfried who was summoned in the Saber class.

Karna who was summoned in the Lancer class.

Francis Drake who was summoned in the Rider class.

And finally a female Hassan-i-Sabbah who somehow possessed all the abilities of previous Hassan-i-Sabbahs.

All these Servants possessed powerful Noble Phantasms that could have killed them had they not formed an alliance. Also, in the case of Siegfried and Karna who had passive defensive Noble Phantasms, they were remarkably hard to be inflicted with any injury as almost all attacks that were ranked B or lower were all useless against them.

In the various encounters with these Servants, Berserker was forced to sacrifice herself during their fight with Karna to give an opening for Archer to defeat the powerful Servant. The other Servants were barely defeated thanks to the trio's teamwork prior to Berserker's sacrifice.

As for the other Masters, Archer never had the chance to even identify any of them as all of them had swiftly gave themselves up to the church where Caren Hortensia, the Supervisor of the current Grail War, resided. It seems all of them were rational enough to do everything in their power to keep their identities a secret.

With the defeat of 5 Servants, the only two Servants left were Archer and Merlin. Despite that it was supposed to require another Servant's sacrifice, the Grail had revealed itself at the grounds of Ryuudou Temple.

Now, here they are. The current survivors of the 5th Grail War plus one normal person have gathered at the place where the Grail had manifested to use it to grant the wish of the war's victor.

After all that he had experienced and seen during the course of the war, Archer had already decided to accept his fate as a Counter Guardian. A decision that he had made bitterly as he found out that nothing in this universe may grant his wish unless Alaya decided that his services as a Counter Guardian were no longer required. A most unlikely scenario.

The other option was for the existence called EMIYA that is currently in the Throne to become a proper Heroic Spirit. Unfortunately, this requires that EMIYA's legend to become widely spread in his original world. A task that is almost impossible as Archer has no idea how to arrive in his original world other than being summoned in the Holy Grail War and that chance is so slim that it was better that it could be thought as completely impossible.

Not to mention that he only has around two weeks during the course of the war to affect history enough to have his legend become widely spread. He supposed that he could enlist his world's Rin to help spread his legend around but if he was already there it would be much simpler to just kill off his younger self.

However, it seems that all was not lost as Merlin had given him one final hope. A chance to save himself if not his true self, EMIYA, that he was originally part of .The only thing left was to answer one simple question.

Should he take it?

To become a proper Heroic Spirit, he will need to perform a feat so amazing that stories of him will be told even after a few generations have passed and THAT was how legends are born. Unfortunately, in the modern world, acts like saving people are hard to become legends as most of those feats may be replicated by others and as such will not be considered 'legendary'.

Basically, if he wants to become a proper Heroic spirit, his act of saving people will have to be so amazing that it cannot be easily replicated by others so that it would be worthy of being called 'legendary'.

The problem was that Archer was not sure that he was able to accomplish such a feat.

"Archer." Rin's voice, full of authority, that suddenly addressed him made him come out of his contemplation.

"Yes, Rin?"

"By my authority as your Master and this Commad Seal, I order you to accept Merlin's proposal."

Archer only had time to blink before the command that was given set in. Archer felt the compulsion that always comes after the usage of a Command Seal was used, forcing his body to do as what was ordered. Come to think of it, Rin was the only Master between the three present Masters that haven't used any of her Command Seals. The other two had expanded two of their Command seals each.

To think that Rin would use it right now of all times to order him to make a wish, Archer thought.

_Although it's a valuable commodity, couldn't she have used it during the war to temporarily increase my chances of winning against the other Servants?_

_ The three of us might not have been in such a desperate situation if she did. _

_On the other hand, being the war's victor without even using one of her Command Seals shows how much ability she has._

While thinking this, Archer still had enough control of his body to give one last quip to his unreasonable Master.

"So you won't give me the chance to even decide my own future? What a terrible Master I have." Archer said this without really meaning what he said in a mocking tone like he usually does. He already understood Rin's intent. If she can't give him a truly good ending she will have to be content with a semi-good ending, was what Archer thought Rin was thinking.

He wasn't expecting to be hugged from all the females present though. All the girls had tears flowing from their eyes too.

"Aren't you girls too old already to have a group hug? And why are you only watching all this? Shouldn't you be jealous that your wives and sister are being affectionate to another man, Emiya Shirou?" Archer tried to be his sarcastic self to hide the little embarrassment he was feeling from close contact with the females that he had once and most likely still loved.

"Well, technically you are me so I don't have any problems with them hugging 'me'." Shirou said without an ounce of jealousy. He figured that Archer at least deserved one hug from Rin, Sakura and Ilya for protecting them. Also, his wives aside, Ilya has shown signs of being quite smitten with Archer.

Surprisingly, Shirou doesn't have any problems with that at all for some reason. He was always quite protective of Ilya as the only male sibling she has and would try to shoo away any would be boyfriend that didn't meet his standards, something that his father, Kiritsugu, encouraged.

Finding out that his sister had a thing for his alternate future self was quite a confusing moment but the thought somehow made some sense as he always thought that he was the perfect match for Ilya. The only thing that stopped him from pursuing any relationship with her was because of their sibling status even if he was actually adopted, so perhaps having an alternate future version of himself as the perfect match in his mind wasn't that surprising.

His current wives on the other hand are another matter. He might tolerate them being affectionate to another man as long as it doesn't cross a certain line. Any more than that however and he would make sure that other man, even if that other man is technically himself, would wish that they had never been born.

"Stupid Servant. If you mess up this second chance, I'm going to Gandr your ass. Count on it." Rin said while smiling with tears falling from her cheeks.

"Please take care of yourself more." Sakura added her own parting words before giving him a kiss on his cheek.

"Shirou, promise me that you will have a happy life. As your Onee-san, I won't permit anything less." Ilya said while hugging Archer tightly from the back with her forehead resting on his back. She had half a mind not to let him go but her more rational self knows that this was for the best. If only she had more courage to confess her feelings to him before this. It was quite a strange feeling to have a crush on her own younger brother.

It's a good thing that he was wearing armor, thought Archer. Excluding Rin who still hadn't developed much even after 10 years, Sakura's and Ilya's breasts have grown more than what Archer remembered them having.

Having finished what they have to say, the girls ended their hug to allow Archer to face Merlin.

"Are you ready, boy?" Merlin asked.

"Yes."

As soon as Archer said that, Merlin started his chanting and prepared to cast his Mystery using the power of the Grail. Not long after, light enveloped the Counter Guardian as it transferred his soul to a different world to be reincarnated.


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fate Stay Night or High School DxD. They belong to Kinoko Nasu and Ichiei Ishibumi respectively. If I did, I would have already created an Ilya route in the VN with a fully-grown and matured Ilya as the heroine and make a badass protagonist for High School DxD instead of a pervert like Issei.**

**- 16 years later - **

It was a bright sunny day. Perfect for outdoor activities.

At this time, Shirou finds himself in the house of his client, repairing a certain circuit breaker. Apparently, one of the main wires were eaten through by a rat, causing half of the house to lose the electricity that powered it.

"There. All done." Shirou said letting out a satisfied smile.

"Airi. Please go and check." The client, Kurokawa Hana, said to her 15 year old daughter.

"Yes, mom." As the girl said this, she went to the kitchen to test the lights that were previously refusing to be turned on. A few seconds later Shirou heard her reply back from the kitchen. "The lights are on now."

Satisfied with her daughter's answer, Hana returns her attention to Shirou. "So. How much will it be?"

"Well...it didn't take long for me to find the problem and it was actually easier to fix than I initially expected so...how about 10,000 yen sound?" Shirou started negotiating with Hana.

"12,000 yen." Said Hana while increasing the negotiated amount like it was nothing.

"Eh? Kurokawa-san, isn't this the time where you try decrease the amount to pay instead of increasing it?" Shirou asked in confusion.

In response to his query, Hana just turned on a lamp on a small table near them and answered him. "This lamp only became a decoration instead of being put here for its use because the plug here was faulty ever since we moved in. You didn't just fix the main wire, you also fixed some of the tangled up wires that were causing some of the plugs in the house to be useless, so I deemed that a little increase in the amount you asked for was appropriate. It's not like I increased it by a lot either." Hana says this while smiling a little.

Shirou scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Looks like I got caught. All right then, 12,000 yen it is."

Seeing as they have achieved an agreement, Hana pulls out a few Japanese bills from her pocket and takes out 12,000 yen. After taking his pay, Shirou started packing up his tools and went to the entrance of the house. While he was tying up his shoes, Hana said to him, "Not many people who does this job would charge a fair amount to their clients after they finished their service. Why, just last week the person who came to fix our air-conditioner tried charging almost double the amount that he worked for. Young man, I hope you don't lose your current honest personality when doing this work. If you keep at it, consider me one of your loyal clients."

"Thank you, Kurokawa-san. I'll be on my way now." Shirou says this while giving a soft smile to his client. After that, he went out of the house to head to his next client's house which was only 5 blocks away.

This was a normal day for Shirou who works as a 'handyman'. He didn't have enough funds to continue his schooling so instead of going to high school like most teenagers his age, once he graduated from middle school, he started using one of his talents to fix things as a way to make ends meet. As it is, he was barely able to pay off all of his utility bills and rent while also making sure to set aside some money to deposit inside his savings account every month.

Despite doing work with such a low pay and having to lower his budgets for his food expenses regularly, Shirou never considered his current lifestyle to be unfortunate. After all, compared to the time when he was considered as a failure, being appreciated for his honest work by his clients was a much better experience.

While heading for the location of his next client, Shirou starts to recall the events that caused him to be excommunicated by the Himejima clan.

It was 8 years ago when it happened.

-** Flashback, 8 years ago -**

It was late at night and it was only a coincidence that he woke up to relieve himself. After he finished doing his business in the toilet, he heard voices in the living room. At first he thought that it might be a burglar but after Reinforcing his ears a little, he recognized that one of the voices belonged to his father, Himejima Shougo.

Thinking that perhaps his father was having a late night meeting with his friends, Shirou decided to just go back to his room and just sleep. That is, until he heard what it was that his father was talking about.

"Finally. That stain on our clan name will finally be purged tonight." Said Shougo.

"We should never have waited until now to act in the first place." Shirou recognized that voice as Himejima Yuuya, his neighbor.

"Calm down, Yuuya. It might have taken this long but at least that bitch and her daughter will no longer be a problem to us." This time, Shirou didn't recognize who the voice belonged to.

"That's right. Before this, we never had a chance to do anything because that bastard Barakiel kept a close watch on his family. Now that he is away, there's nothing that's protecting that bitch Shuuri and her abomination of a daughter. Tonight, they will both **die**." Said Shougo gleefully.

Shirou was horrified. Barakiel, Shuuri and their daughter that he knew as Akeno-nee.

They were going to kill them!

Ever since he was young his parents had told him to stay away from that family. They warned him that it was a family where a demon known as a Fallen Angel had married a woman of their clan and that woman gave birth to an even uglier and more evil demon. However, his curiosity got the better of him and he went to meet them anyway 2 years ago.

And he was glad that he did.

He and Akeno became good friends almost immediately. The same could be said when he brought his younger sister, Himejima Yukari, to meet her. Akeno was like an older sister to him and Yukari, hence they always called her Akeno-nee. Her mother, Shuuri, was a kind woman. She would always prepare some snacks for him and his sister every time they went to play. In time though, he formed some sort of rivalry with Shuuri when it comes to cooking as he was becoming as good as her in all the matters of the kitchen.

This always caused Akeno and Yukari no end of giggles.

He had never actually met Akeno's father, Barakiel, as he was always out when they visited, which was already very few as he and Yukari had to keep their visits a secret, lest their parents ground them and did everything to make sure they never went there again. He and Yukari became good friends with Akeno in those 2 years and he could honestly say that it was one of the happiest period of his life.

And now, he just found out that his father and some of the people in the clan are planning to have them killed.

The next few hours were a blur to Shirou. He remembered running out of his house after changing his clothes and bringing his life savings with him. After that, he went straight to the place where Akeno and her mother lived only to find it burned down and Shuuri dead.

She died protecting Akeno.

He didn't remember how he was able to escape with Akeno, he just knew that he managed to protect her until she reached a safe place for her to hide unharmed. The next day, he brought Akeno to the train station and gave her all the money he had on him before they went their separate ways. Akeno begged him to come with her and to tell the truth, he wanted to go with her too but he couldn't leave behind Yukari like that and Akeno understood. She hugged him just before the train departed and thanked him for being her friend.

**- Flashback, End -**

In the next week, he was held under house arrest by the order of the Himejima clan head.

It was finally decided that he would be excommunicated from the clan for treason. It wasn't a very hard decision to make seeing as he never had any aptitude in using the Himejima clan's arts and was considered a failure by the clan. All he was able to do was some strange ability to strengthen his body or other objects and the ability analyze any object's structure, composition and history from just looking at them which he called Reinforcement and Structural Analysis respectively. The name suddenly popped up inside his head when he decided to give a name to those abilities.

The decision to excommunicate him would have been made sooner if it hadn't been because almost everyone in the clan were busy looking for Akeno.

He was actually glad that he was excommunicated 8 years ago to have a fresh start in his life. He even took this chance to change his name from Himejima Reiji to Emiya Shirou, again, it was a name that had suddenly popped up in his head when he was thinking what name he should adopt after he was excommunicated. It wasn't really hard to do seeing that the Himejima clan forbade him from even using his birth name as they consider it to be an insult to them after what he did that day.

He never regretted his actions back then despite others condemning him for it. The only person who supported him back then was his younger sister. The last time he saw his younger sister was 8 years ago when he was kicked out of his home by his parents. She was crying in his chest back then asking him to take her with him. Unfortunately, the people in the clan would never have allowed it. Unlike him, Yukari was very adept in the arts of the Himejima clan. She was so good at it that she was hailed as a genius.

The clan would never allow her to leave that easily.

It was fortunate that he was able to secure a way for him to keep in contact with Yukari. It seems that the Himejima clan tried their best to brainwash her to fit their image of a proper priestess belonging to their clan. As it stands, it was only his encouraging words that kept Yukari from being brainwashed. Right now, she was only pretending to be their perfect little puppet so that they won't use drastic measures to make sure that their attempts at brainwashing her would stick.

As soon as she finds an opening, Yukari was planning to run away from the Himejima clan.

After Shirou was kicked out of of the clan, he immediately tried looking for Akeno. Unfortunately, without having a clue as to where to look for her, he ended up wandering Japan using his Structural Analysis to repair items as a way to get some food and clothing from various people he met. When he finally found Akeno, she was already taken in by the Devils known as the Gremorys.

At first, Shirou was worried that Akeno was going to be made a hostage seeing as her father was a high ranking Fallen Angel but after seeing Akeno and the heiress of the Gremory, Rias Gremory, happily shopping one day, he found that they had actually became good friends instead. Shirou was quite relieved at that and wanted to immediately reunite with Akeno but after further rumination, he decided against it as he didn't know what her current position is like at the moment.

Would he put Akeno in trouble with the Devils if he decided to continue their previous friendship? He has no idea about the customs of the Devils so he couldn't risk it. Instead, he decided to continue his education in his previous school seeing as the tuition fee was already paid in advance by his parents all the way to middle school.

They didn't even think to try and get back the money they paid for his schooling because they considered it filthy.

He had a much easier time when he reached middle school as the school his parents had chosen was a boarding school, so he always had a roof on his head in the form of a dorm. Before this, he camped in abandoned temples and continued his 'repairman' schtick to buy food and clothing.

No doubt his parents had chosen a boarding school in order to keep him away because they were ashamed of giving birth to a failure such as him. After all, Yukari was never allowed to go to a boarding school so that they can keep a close eye on her upbringing.

His life as a 'handyman' after graduating from middle school was quite hard in the first few months as his clients were very few and he ended up paying his bills and rent very late. Fortunately, his honest nature garnered him some loyal customers who helped spread his name and now he had enough funds to pay his bills and rents on time albeit barely. This situation would not continue for longer however, as soon, Shirou would have enough money saved to start his own cafe.

He was confident in his cooking skills and he was sure that the various menus that he has planned for his cafe would be received positively by all his customers regardless of age or gender. Perhaps if his cafe became popular enough, he would even be able to start a franchise and become the founder of a new chain of restaurants.

A very unlikely scenario but there's no harm in having a dream is there?

If all goes well, Yukari would soon find a way to extract herself from the Himejima clan and both of them would be able to reunite with Akeno. It's very unlikely that things would go back to the time when they were just kids as they've experienced many hardships that had changed them in more ways than one. Still, he was sure that whatever happens in the future, everything would be alright as long as the three of them were together.

In fact, the reason why he worked as a 'handyman' in this town was because he had found the high school that Akeno had enrolled in.

Kuoh Academy.

It was a school that was under the control of the Devils but as far as he knew, the Devils were not as evil as the Bible make them out to be. Sure, they still make contracts with humans who desired their services, but the payment depends on the service that they have rendered and it's mostly in the form of money, gold or other valuables. Very rarely do they take the clients soul as payment as most of the clients would refuse to sell their souls anyway.

There might actually be Devils that are as evil as the Bible describes but the current Devils who are managing this town are not like that at the very least. This makes Shirou think that the Devils are just like humans in a sense that there are good and evil humans just as there are good and evil Devils.

Finding out that the Devils that took in Akeno were good people was quite heartening. Of course, he would still need to tread carefully when trying to reunite with Akeno. Akeno has already lost everything once, he doesn't want to be the one to destroy her current happy life because of his own careless actions.

Which is the reason why so far he's only been watching Akeno from afar for the last year without making any contact.

What he's been doing might be misunderstood as stalking but it's not like he's been following her everywhere all the time. Most of the time that he has seen her were due to sheer coincidence from her outings with Rias or one of the other Devils that attended Kuoh Academy. Every time that happened however, he could clearly see that Akeno was having fun so he did not want to ruin the moment by revealing himself, thus he concluded that it would be better that he made himself scarce.

The rest of the time that he saw her was when he had to pass in front of Kuoh Academy due to the location of his client's homes. Sometimes he would see her during her P.E. classes while other times he needed to Reinforce his eyes to see her through a window, listening to the teacher, during her academic classes. In both of those times, he would only pause for a single moment to watch her before going on his way.

He was always content to see Akeno leading as normal a life a person can have. Going to school, making friends, going shopping, doing homework and other things that normal teenage girls do. There were times he wished that he could go to high school and experience the same things a normal teenage boy would do as well but it was always quashed the next moment. There was no use in dwelling on 'what ifs'. All he can do now was live in the present and plan for the future. Also, there were other more pressing matters that he needs to worry about.

Like Akeno's recently discovered hobby.

This was something he discovered a few months back when he was in Akihabara. At the time, he was called to one of the shops there to fix its lighting. The job was easy enough as all he needed to do was use Structural Analysis to find the problem and fix it like he always does.

It was when he was heading back home after finishing his job that he saw Akeno.

Usually, he would've made himself scarce but curiosity got the better of him as he wondered what she was doing here. He didn't really have to follow her as the establishment that she was heading to was only a few meters away from where he first saw her. His jaw dropped when he read the sign the shop had on its glass doors.

Kinky Paradise. It was a SM shop for hardcore perverts.

At that moment he went through every possible conclusions that he could think of that would make a person that he had always regarded as an older sister figure enter such a shop. Suffice to say that all the conclusions that he thought up had gone from the obvious to reasonable until it became entirely absurd.

His questions were answered later when Akeno came out of the shop with a new plastic bag that belonged to the shop while having a small skip in her steps and a big smile on her face. Of course, he later asked the shop's staffs for confirmation and his fears were right on target.

Akeno is a Super 'S' and the shop's regular customer.

How did a sweet girl such as her become like that he would never know. At first he suspected that the Devils might have influenced her but after further recollections and analysis of Akeno's behavior ever since he knew her, he starts to recall signs of Akeno being a 'S'. Such as the many times she used to tease him when they were little.

The knowledge made him have nightmares for the next few days involving Akeno in a SM outfit with a whip.

In the end he was able to just let the whole thing go. It wasn't his place to lecture her about her hobbies. After all, he has dreams of becoming a superhero ever since he was a kid. The difference is that Akeno had decided to pursue her interest while he had decided not to. Even with his strange abilities, he always knew that as he was right now, he would never become one. Despite that, he was never able to let go of that childish dream.

This led him to always end up desiring to help someone in need as a compromise.

Helping a little girl get her kitten that was stuck up a tree.

Helping old people cross the street.

Pushing someone out of the way of a speeding car.

Rescuing a baby who was trapped in a burning building.

Giving a bridal carry to a pregnant lady who was in labor and rushing her to the hospital.

Basically, whenever he encounters someone that needed his help, he can't help but want to use every ounce of his ability to save them. It was a bit of a conundrum to him actually as he discovered that whenever he tries to value his own life compared to others, he would always find that he was unable to do so. Every time he tried playing a scenario inside his head where his and a stranger's life was in danger, he would find that he would always prioritize the life of a complete stranger instead of his own.

When he compared his interests in becoming a superhero and Akeno's SM hobby, he found that his interests were the more dangerous of the two. So how can he judge her if **he** was a danger to himself? Also, even with her weird hobby, he couldn't help think that Akeno was still the sweet older sister he once knew.

So he won't judge her. Nor does he have the right to do so in the first place.

_To think I would start recalling the past like an old man even if it isn't so distant. Maybe that nightmare I had last night is having more of an effect on me than I had originally thought._

The nightmare that he had last night was something that was fit to be called hell on Earth. He remembered that the town in his dream was being burned down by flames that were so strong that it melted steel. He could even remember all the screams for help and all the curses that were being sent up to the heavens. However, what really affected him was that in that nightmare he was also one of the victims of the fire.

He remembered that in the fire, he kept on moving forward while ignoring everything around him. He ignored all the screams for help and curses sent his way in favor of trying to save himself. He also remembered how he threw away all his memories and emotions in the fire just so that he could keep moving forward while believing that there was an exit, an escape route that he could use to get out of the flames. His dream self kept on moving forward regardless of how many times he stumbled and got up or how burned up his body was. He just kept moving forward urged only by the instinct to survive.

Despite it only being a dream, it felt so realistic that he had no doubt that he would've been traumatized for life had the nightmare not ended with his dream self finally being saved by a man that had dead eyes. It was a strange feeling to think that he knew the man despite also being sure that he had never seen him in his life. He also felt a sense of nostalgia whenever he tried to recall him.

Not only that, the man's expression of joy from saving his life has been plaguing his thoughts ever since he saw them. When he woke up, he wondered what kind of life the man had to go through if he could be so happy from being able to save just one life in that hell but at the time during the dream, when he saw the man's smile, he and his dream self had the same thought.

I wish I could be that happy.

Shirou sighed.

_It's useless to think about it. In the end it's just a bad dream, that's all. I'll consult someone about it later. Maybe it's some kind of symbol on how my psyche works, who knows? Right now I've got work to do. Hopefully it's not a bad omen and I'll just sleep it off tomorrow._

As he arrived at the house of his next client, Shirou decides to just forget about everything else and just focus on his work for now.

**- Scene Break - **

_That took longer than I thought._

His last client had a major problem with the wiring in his house because he was too stubborn to call an electrician and wanted to do the repairs himself. The result was a huge mess of tangled wires that he had to fix. Although it was easy enough to do thanks to his Structural Analysis, it still took a long time to disentangle all the wires and hook them up again to the right places.

The client promised to never be so stubborn again after Shirou gave him a good lecture.

It was night right now. Fortunately, he didn't receive any other house calls from his other clients for the day seeing how he would have to cancel them right now if he did. It would be unreasonable for them to expect him to work until late into the night. He wasn't a Devil after all. At most, he'd agree to work until around a few hours after dusk like today.

The reason was that he didn't want to miss the last train of the day. He didn't want to end up paying for a taxi which is more expensive. The bills and rents are barely on time already even after he had lowered his food expense budget. And he still wanted to have some extra money to be deposited inside his account too.

_Guess I'll take a shortcut._

The shortcut was through a park that was a famous spot for couples to make out. Usually, he would avoid using it but today he considered it an emergency. Hopefully, he won't end up disturbing any couples.

**- Scene Break - **

Hyoudou Issei was having the day of his life.

A few days ago, a cute girl named Amano Yuuma had confessed to him.

For a pervert like him who never had any success to get a girl to even like him, much less to have a girlfriend, for as long as he lived, Yuuma's confession was like the most pleasant music that would ever be heard by his ears.

Today marked the first day that he and Yuuma would go on a date, and he could honestly say that it was happiest day of his life yet. The only thing that would make him happier was if Yuuma asked him for a kiss, which is something he was expecting ever since she brought him to this park at night. There was even a fountain near them that increased the romantic atmosphere.

As he impatiently waited for Yuuma to ask him for a goodbye kiss, she finally said to him,

"Hey, Ise-kun."

"What is it, Yuuma-chan?"

"There is something I want to do to celebrate our first date. Can you listen to my wish?"

_Here it comes, the kiss I've been waiting for! _ thought Issei.

"W-What is the w-wish you want?"

"Will you die for me?"

"Eh?" Did he hear that correctly? No way. It's impossible for someone as cute as this girl to say something like that.

"That is...huh, sorry, can you repeat that again? I think there's something wrong with my ears."

"Will you die for me?" The girl in front of him repeated while laughing.

Suddenly, black wings appeared on her back and her once cute eyes also became cold and scary. When she spoke again, her tone sounded very cold like an adult's.

"It was fun. The short time I spent with you. It was like playing house with a little child."

Her mouth formed into a cold smile. Gone, was the cheerful girl that he was on a date just a few moments ago replaced with a complete stranger with a merciless, cruel and sadistic demeanor. Not even a trace of the girl who confessed to him a few days ago remained.

The next moment, a spear of light appeared in the girl's hand and she threw it at Ise.

However, before the spear could hit him, he was suddenly pushed out of the way. The force of something that suddenly rammed into him made him lose all the air in his lungs. Before he could even figure out what had happened, he was being violently hauled up.

"Get up, idiot! We've gotta run!" A familiar male voice yelled at him.

"Shirou? Wha-"

BOOM!

Before he could finish his sentence the ground behind him exploded and he could hear Yuuma's screaming voice, "COME BACK, HERE!"

"No time! Just run!"

_What in the world is going on here!? _Thought Ise.

**- Scene Break -**

_Great! Just great! The one time I decided to take a shortcut through the park and I had to bump into an assassination attempt on someone I knew! Although my life isn't that unfortunate my luck sucks ass!_

He and Ise became acquainted when Ise's mother made a house call to him a few months back to fix their TV. He and Ise became friends of sorts ever since.

When he decided to pass through the park, he expected that the worst that could happen was that he would stumble upon a couple doing **it**. Instead, he found Ise nearly being killed by a Fallen Angel who seemed to be the girl that Ise was boasting had confessed to him for the last few days.

_It's these kind of Fallen Angels that give Fallen Angels like Akeno and Barakiel a bad name_. That very thought made him angry.

It might not have been directly but Fallen Angels such as these might have contributed to the hostile relationship that humans and Fallen Angels currently have. If it weren't for them, Akeno might still have a mother.

Unfortunately, no matter how angry he was, he knew that he was no match for a Fallen Angel. Even if he was currently practicing Kendo and Kyudo to keep his body in shape, it was useless against a Fallen Angel without something to use as a weapon.

Thus, running away was their best option.

Running on a paved path would've made them an easy target, especially since Fallen Angels could fly and start to target then from the sky, so he led Ise inside the forest that was surrounding the park instead. He had hoped that the trees would give them some cover and make it harder for them to be tracked.

Unfortunately, his hopes were too naive as moments later, a spear of light came from above and pierced him on the left side of his abdomen.

"SHIROU!" He heard Ise yell.

"...Shit..." It might've been he was lucky or the Fallen Angel, Yuuma, just had bad aim but the spear didn't pierce any vital organs. However, he could still feel his blood leaking out of his body. At this rate, even if he wasn't killed by Yuuma, he would die of blood loss very soon.

"That was annoying. Stop running and just die already. I don't have time to waste with the likes of you." Yuuma said this in an annoyed tone while she descended from the sky, her black wings flapping behind her.

"Yuuma-chan...why?" Ise asked confused by the whole situation.

"It's nothing personal. If you want to hate someone, hate God for putting that Sacred Gear inside you." Yuuma answered him coldly.

"...Sacred...what?" Ise was becoming more confused after hearing a term he's never heard before.

Shirou however, recognized the term. Sacred Gears were items with powerful abilities bestowed upon humans by the God in the Bible. It is said that certain individuals with Sacred Gears have become very powerful and influential in the human world thanks to their abilities but there were some among them that housed incredible power that could even potentially kill a God.

_So, Ise has a Sacred Gear huh? That answers the question of why she is targeting him but since I don't know what it is, I can't rely on it's ability to save us right now._

Forget about using the Sacred Gear to save them, he doesn't even know how a possessor was supposed to do to activate them. Most of the education on the supernatural he received were very basic as his parents had concentrated on passing their knowledge to Yukari instead of him.

As he was thinking this, he saw Yuuma form another spear of light in her hands to kill Ise.

_Isn't there something?...ANYTHING, that I could use to get us out of this whole mess? _While Shirou tried to find a way to save both their lives, he saw a leaflet sticking out of Ise's pockets.

It was a Devil's summoning circle.

There was no time to think, before Yuuma could launch her spear at Ise, Shirou grabbed the leaflet and wished for a Devil to appear in front of them. At this stage, he didn't care who appeared as long as the Devil was strong enough to repel Yuuma.

"Like I'd let you!" Yuuma who saw what Shirou was after launched her spear at the leaflet with the summoning circle instead.

Fortunately, Shirou was able to pull the summoning circle out of the way in time and he was able to send his wish for a Devil to appear through the summoning circle. However, it would still take a while for the Devil to appear, so he has to find a way to buy them some time.

Yuuma also seemed to have noticed this, as she renewed her efforts on Ise who was her original target.

_Damn it! If only I had weapon with me right now. _Even if he couldn't match her, he could at least buy some time for the Devil to arrive.

As he saw another spear of light formed in Yuuma's hand, despair started to creep into his heart. He immediately discarded those negative emotions. Nothing can be born from despair so it's useless to dwell on them. He started searching his surroundings for any broken branches, sticks or anything that he can use to buy some time.

As his mind frantically tried to process his surroundings, he started to feel dizzy and his mind was clouded in a haze. His sight was starting to blur and the sounds around him started to dim.

At this moment, memories that weren't his own flooded his mind.

Happy memories.

Sad memories.

Important memories.

Traumatic memories.

Even perverted memories.

All were crammed inside his head in that single moment.

_Ah, so that's it. _

The memories that he received were those that he was supposed to recall gradually within the next few years but circumstances had accelerated their transfer into his mind.

_That's who I really am._

He has finally understood who he really was but the accelerated transfer was still too sudden for his mind to fully comprehend the memories in that single moment, thus the personality of his past self wasn't able to fully assert itself.

For Shirou, this was enough.

"Trace...On!" Flooding what he found was called Magic Circuits with his Od, he quickly Reinforced himself to the limit and darted forward at the same time as Yuuma launched her spear at Ise.

In the time he arrived in front of Ise to shield him, he Traced two swords that symbolized Yin and Yang in his hands.

Kanshou and Bakuya.

These married swords were the favorite weapons of his past self and they were strong enough for him to use it to deflect the spear of light that Yuuma had launched at Ise in the nick of time. The spear was mere inches from impaling Ise.

Surprise was evident on Yuuma's face as her spear was veered off target, deflected by Shirou and completely missing Ise but Shirou didn't want to give her enough time to collect herself.

"Wha-?"

Before Yuuma could even finish her word, Shirou was already on her, wielding Kanshou and Bakuya with the intent to decapitate her head.

On reflex, Yuuma formed a spear of light in her right hand and barely managed to block one of the sword that was meant for her head but she didn't have time form a second spear in her left hand as it was not her dominant arm. Having no choice, she had to sacrifice her left hand in order to slow down the sword's horizontal slash.

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!" She released a pained scream at having her left hand chopped off so easily. Even so, she was able to use the time the sword needed to cut through her hand to fly into the sky and escape her enemy's attack range.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" She started to form her spear of light again but stopped when she saw two figures appear from the summoning circle that Shirou had used earlier.

"I'LL REMEMBER THIS! SOMEDAY, YOU'LL SUFFER FOR THIS INSULT!" Saying this, she quickly departed from the scene. She was rational enough to know that she was in no condition to fight off two Devils in her current state.

_Typical villain cliche line,_ thought Shirou before he finally collapsed and passed out from blood loss. He could no longer feel any strength in his limbs.

"Shirou!" Ise was able to catch Shirou before he fell to the ground.

"Hey! Come on! Open your eyes! Speak to me! Shirou!" Tears started to fall from Ise's eyes as he felt his friend's body started to become cold.

"Oh? Is that boy dead?" Ise turned his head as he heard a female voice coming from behind him.

**- Scene Break - **

Rias wasn't sure what she expected to find when she was summoned by a client who wanted a powerful Devil to be summoned as a criteria. Akeno who was with her back at the club room when the request was made was also intrigued and so she decided to tag along with the summoning.

Seeing two boys, one was already dead as she couldn't sense any signs of life from him while the other was crying while holding onto his body, in a forest that showed signs of battle and usage of holy powers at night was definitely at the top of her Unexpected Events list.

"Oh? Is that boy dead?" Rias said. From the looks of the situation, it seems that her client had asked for a strong Devil in order to fight off whoever it was that was trying to kill them

"Rias-senpai? Akeno-senpai?" The crying boy asked in a shocked tone.

"Ara. Aren't you Hyoudou Issei-kun? You're a 2nd year student at Kuoh Academy right?" Asked Akeno.

"Yes, but never mind that! We have to get Shirou to the hospital, quick!" Ise said.

"Shirou? Is that his-" Whatever Akeno was about say was stuck in her throat as she was finally able to take a good look at Shirou's face.

"Reiji-kun?" Akeno's face was filled horror as her body started to tremble and her right hand was on her mouth. It might have been 8 years since the last time she had seen him but there was no way that she could not recognize the face of the boy that she had always loved as a younger brother and the very person who came to her rescue when her home was burned down and her mother was killed in front of her own very eyes.

"No... No... It can't be... Reiji-kun!" Akeno started to panic as she fell on her knees and took Shirou's body away from Ise. She started to hug his body close to her while crying.

"Reiji-kun! Don't die! Please! Open your eyes!" Akeno continued to plea. She cried with all her heart but it was too late. His body had already become cold.

Rias who could no longer stand to just watch from the sidelines finally asked. "Akeno, do you know him?"

Akeno who was still distraught didn't even look at Rias as she gave a small nod and answered her. "Himejima Reiji. *Sob* He was my *Sob* cousin. He helped me *Sob* escape the Himejima clan *Sob* 8 years ago."

Hearing Akeno's answer, Rias made a quick decision. As Akeno's best friend, it was no wonder that she knew about Akeno's past with her clan that had once and most likely still want her dead. Not to mention she always did have a weakness for tragic stories.

Rias pulled out a red pawn piece from her skirt and knelt down beside Shirou's body that Akeno was still hugging and held the red pawn piece near him. Immediately, Rias could feel a reaction coming from the chess piece.

Akeno who finally noticed what Rias was intending to do, can't help but ask while tears continue to flow down her eyes, "Rias. *Sob* Are you sure about this *Sob*?" As much as she wants her cousin to be brought back, she also doesn't want her best friend to waste a precious pawn piece that would determine the future of her peerage.

"Yes, Akeno. From the looks of it, he was able to fight off a Fallen Angel if the black feathers around the place is any indication. I'm sure he would be a valuable addition to my peerage. And it's only one pawn piece." Rias says this while giving a soothing smile to Akeno.

After that, Rias inserted the pawn piece into Shirou's body and the ceremony to gain another member for her peerage concluded.

"Thank you, Rias." Akeno says this in a small and weak voice.

"It's nothing. You should bring him back to your place and help heal him. I'm sure he'll need explanations when he wakes up. And seeing a familiar face won't hurt either."

"All right." After she says this, a magic circle appeared under Akeno and both she and Shirou disappeared soon after. No doubt, they have already arrived at Akeno's home.

Rias also wanted to go home but she has one other task at hand.

"Now then, Hyoudou-kun. I would like you to come with me and explain to me everything that happened tonight. Is that alright?" Rias asked Ise while showing him a confident smile.

Ise who was pushed to the sidelines and could only watch without interrupting the scene that was moving forward in front of his eyes until then could only nod while being stunned.

His mind was in a state of shock.

However, he was still able to voice out one question. "Who are you?"

"Oh? To think that I forgot to introduce myself. Where are my manners?" At this, bat wings appeared on Rias's back and she curtsied a little.

"My name is Rias Gremory. I am a Devil."

This was going to be a long night for Ise.


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fate Stay Night or High School DxD. They belong to Kinoko Nasu and Ichiei Ishibumi respectively. If I did, I would have already created an Ilya route in the VN with a fully-grown and matured Ilya as the heroine and make a badass protagonist for High School DxD instead of a pervert like Issei.**

**- Next morning, Akeno's home -**

The last time he remembered kissing someone was when he was forced to have a tantric prana ritual with Rin and Sakura during one of the reenactments of the 5th Grail War in order to restore his depleted reserves. It was one of the few times he was summoned by Emiya Shirou instead of Rin, where he experienced many hardships in having an incompetent Master who can't even supply him the needed prana.

Still, during those times, the kisses were awkward and stiff, not to mention there was no love in them as the act was done out of necessity instead of passion. After all, having sex while being defenseless as an enemy Servant was nearby, doing its best to hunt them all down, was a very nerve-wrecking experience and wasn't as sensual a night as others might have thought it to be.

Though perhaps having the boy that the girls had a crush on in the next room also contributed to that awkward atmosphere.

Right now however, the kiss that Akeno was giving him was full of passion.

It astounded Archer that not just a few minutes ago that he found himself waking up while being embraced by a beautiful Japanese girl with long silky black hair that he identified as Akeno. The next thing that he noticed was that they were both naked. Literally.

He was already used to finding himself in various compromising situations with women whether when he was still alive or during his summonings in the various reenactments of the 5th Grail War, so he was able keep himself from being flustered. That said, seeing Akeno's expression that was filled with fear made him unconsciously hug her closer to his body. He was rewarded with her having a more peaceful slumber, if the small smile she had was any indication, that set his heart at ease.

No doubt that these actions and feelings were the result of Shirou's 16 years of accumulated experiences and emotions in this world. Of course, his own memories seemed to have affected it in someway as well. For one thing, he was experienced enough to know that his reincarnated self's feelings for Akeno was far more than just love for an older sister figure. To Archer, the fact that Shirou didn't even realize it was typical Emiya Shirou behavior. He's reminded again why his younger self was always so dense about these matters.

As there were no other distractions present (he's experienced enough to ignore Akeno's soft breasts that's pressing against his side at this moment), he started to assess his current situation as quickly as possible before his thoughts could be derailed from some unexpected event that might crop up if his terrible luck was still present.

Recalling the memories from last night and some use of Structural Analysis on his current body, he arrived at the most obvious conclusion.

_It looks like I've been turned into a Devil._

If this was something that happened in his home world, he would've already cursed everything to high Heaven as that would mean that his soul was most likely damned for all eternity. It was a fate that was most likely worse than being a Counter Guardian. Fortunately, he had already determined that it might not be the case with the Devils of this world.

On the contrary, turning into a Devil was what had most likely saved him from being reclaimed by Alaya as he had not even achieved any of the prerequisites to become a Heroic Spirit yet. There were still some questions of what will happen if he died as a Devil but something tells him that it was probably not as bad as becoming a Counter Guardian.

Another thing that he discovered was the current condition of his psyche. A normal person might not have easily noticed when their way of thinking was subtly changed or affected by the existence of just a few extra years of memories in their minds, but Archer was someone who had once steeled his mind in order to perform atrocities that would ultimately save more lives than what he had taken. Thus, he immediately recognized the abnormality of his previous action trying to comfort Akeno just a few moments ago.

If this was the normal him, Akeno would not have mattered much to him as he barely knew her but the existence of the memories from Shirou's 16 years of life, had caused him to have feelings for Akeno in extension. His current psyche was like an amnesiac who lived more than decade without his memories only to recover all of them after that.

Basically, the 16 years of memories from the moment he reincarnated had also become a part of him as much as or perhaps more than his memories from before that as it has now basically become his most recent memory. In other words, those who his reincarnated self had deemed as important became important to Archer as well, hence the feeling of affection he currently has for Akeno.

Although this made him feel a bit like a pedophile at first seeing that he was mentally a few centuries old, in the end he decided to just go with the flow. After all, this current life was supposed to be a second chance for him so why not treat it as such? Not to mention that he will have a hard time ignoring his emotions as his current teenage body will be producing a lot of hormones to make sure that he won't.

He was however a bit puzzled at how accepting he was at being called Emiya Shirou again. He had discarded that name after being a Counter Guardian and found being called that very irritating as it reminds him of how he had doomed himself when he decided to make that contract with Alaya all those centuries ago in his quest to become a hero.

After some further ruminations, he considered it was most likely because he was about to take up the dream to become a hero again. A dream that he had once discarded. The motive behind that desire might have changed slightly but somehow using that name again while pursuing a path to become a hero seemed...fitting.

It was ironic that the same dream that had once doomed him was what will now save him.

It was at this moment that Akeno started to stir and slowly woke up. Seeing Akeno got up into a sitting position, Archer also started to haul his own body up as well.

"Good morn-" As soon as their eyes met, he decided to adopt some of his reincarnated self's behavior to avoid suspicion but before he could even finish his greeting, Akeno had kissed him. It was not even a small peck on his lips either but a full-blown deep and passionate French kiss, complete with the tongue and tongue play, sucking and moans from Akeno.

Despite the amorous kiss however, he was able to detect signs of her body trembling in his arms. With her obvious fear coupled with what his reincarnated self knew of her and his own experiences with women, Archer was quite sure that Akeno was currently frantic about his apparent death last night and was seeking comfort from him in the form of sexual pleasure.

If it was the usual him, he would've already broken the kiss and pushed her back but the effects of Shirou's own strong emotions that was now his, resulted in him gently reciprocating her kiss and hugging her body close to him. It was the only compromise he could think of to calm her down. Of course, he would still stop her if she decided to go any further than that.

It doesn't matter how lusciously seductive her body was,

or how he could feel her pressing her soft breasts against his chest,

or how she was rubbing her womanhood against his own manhood,

or how her pleasurable moans could make any man who hear them become very horny,

or how her hands were moving on his back in a way that could increase any man's sexual desire, he was not going to let his libido get the better of him!

His feelings that he had inherited from Shirou for Akeno aside, he was not about to take advantage of a teenage girl's moment of weakness and take her virginity (even if she was a Devil that was the very _symbol_ of giving in to one's desires) even if his teenage hormones are practically **begging** him to do so.

...At least, he thinks that she's still a virgin.

After a few minutes, the two of them finally ended their lo~ng kiss. However, Akeno seemed to have an expression that's a mix between disappointment and pouting which makes her look very cute.

Archer, who already knew why she made that face decided to tease her a little. "You're gonna have to do better than that if you're planning on seducing me." Archer said with a smug grin.

Akeno blinked a few times after hearing his challenge and gave him her most seductive smile and sultry voice yet. "Is that so?"

The kiss might have started because Akeno was seeking comfort but after the first 30 seconds, it seems his own kissing technique had some how aroused her, making the kiss after that completely due to lust and passion. What can he say? He was just that good. He needed to be, with the amount of women that he usually gets involved with.

Still, he deemed that a repeat performance of their earlier 'activities' might be bad, so he decided to just change the subject. After all, it's been more than 8 years since the last time they've spoken to each other so a more appropriate greeting was to be expected. "It's been a while Akeno."

"Yes, it has. And wasn't it supposed to be Akeno-nee?" She smiled softly at him. Most of the traces of lust disappearing from her face, replaced with a smile that she used give Shirou when they were younger.

He shrugged. "I've grown up."

"Clearly." She trailed her fingers across his abs as she said this, a blush appearing on her face as she tested the muscles that felt as solid as steel on her fingers.

Despite having given up on trying to become a hero, Shirou was never able to completely abandon that dream, thus he always made sure to keep his body fit with routine exercises everyday that concentrates on his basic foundations such as strength, endurance and agility. As a result, his body was very fit. Although it was not as fit as a body builder, his body had enough muscles and a six pack abs to surpass an average high school student.

"What can I say? I work out a lot."

"Of course you would. You're aiming to be a hero aren't you? Fufufu."

Come to think of it, Shirou had once told Akeno of his dreams when they were younger. Although it's mostly because Akeno managed to trick him to reveal it. She really was wily fox wasn't she? As expected of a Fallen Angel turned Devil.

Before Archer could give another reply, Akeno suddenly hugged him tightly with her head on his chest.

"I'm glad you're alright Reiji-kun."

"Shirou."

"Hm?"

"I changed my name to Emiya Shirou after I was kicked out of the Himejima clan 8 years ago."

"...I see." There were hints of sadness in her voice. Since she was the cause of his excommunication, it's no wonder she felt guilty about it.

"Don't worry about it. It's not like you're the cause that made me a failure in their eyes."

"You're not a failure!" Akeno immediately refuted his statement heatedly.

Seeing Akeno recovering her spirit, Archer just smiled at her which made her smile as well. It was then that Archer realized the current time displayed on a clock on one of Akeno's dressers.

"By the way, aren't you late for school?"

"We can just teleport there using my magic circle."

_Teleportation huh? The magi from my world would salivate if they knew there was a way to use that kind of Magecraft. Hm? Wait a minute._

"What do you mean 'we'?"

"Buchou already prepared the necessary arrangements last night for you to transfer to Kuoh. She had to ask for help from Sona and Grayfia-san however." Akeno seemed happy at this.

_To think that I have to go to high school again even though I've already graduated a few centuries ago. Well, this world's history seem to be a bit different than what I know so I guess that's one thing I can be sure that won't be _completely_ boring._

While Archer was deep in his thoughts, Akeno started fidgeting uncomfortably on his lap. Thinking that perhaps she was becoming uncomfortable with their current...position, he had half a mind to apologize but decided to play the ignorance card to just tease her again.

"Something wrong?" He said innocently.

"Um...Rei-Shirou-kun. Aren't you...going to ask?"

Reassessing his previous assumptions, Archer finally figured out what was really bothering her.

"About me becoming a Devil?"

"Yes." Akeno said in a low voice. She was clearly afraid that he would blame her for losing his humanity.

"Unless my soul has become damned for all eternity, I don't really have much problem with it. At least, I'm still alive."

"It's okay. Unlike what the Bible says, those who become Devils aren't eternally damned. We're just expected to serve the Devil that accepted us into their peerage. I'll explain in more detail at school. Before we get ready however..." Saying that, she turned her gaze downward at our respective manhood and womanhood that were still rubbing at each other. A mischievous smile appeared on her face.

_Oh, no._

Before Archer could react however, Akeno had already started rubbing her womanhood against his sword more intensely and had once again resumed their kiss. Before he knew it, the both of them had released their juices with Akeno having an expression that was filled with euphoria.

"Fufufu. What was that about having to do better to seduce you?" Akeno's said directly in his ears with her previous seductive and sultry voice returning. With a vengeance.

_She got me. Well, at least we didn't actually ended up doing **it**. Should've remembered that she's a Super 'S' hardcore pervert._ Archer thought, out loud however, he said, "It was alright I guess."

Akeno only smiled at Archer. She probably thought that he was just bluffing. Although Archer couldn't really deny that it did felt good, his sex life really did include those that were much more...intense.

Of course, he wasn't going to tell Akeno about them.

"I'll definitely get you to admit defeat." Akeno said playfully before getting up from her straddling position and started getting ready for school.

Archer only has one thing to say about that morning. "Well, that was rowdy."

**- Scene Break, Kuoh Academy, Lunch Time -**

"You girls had enough yet?" Said Archer.

"Huff huff... This guy is...huff...unbelievable."

"His stance...huff... is full of holes so...huff... why can't we hit him!?"

"Dammit! I've went to the nationals! I even went all out! I can't believe we couldn't even make him move from his SPOT!"

Right now, he was being surrounded by more than a dozen girls, all of whom were down on the ground. They were all women from the kendo club. Despite the scene, none of them was hurt. They were all just exhausted.

To explain the current situation, let's go back to this morning.

Archer had found out that the Gremory's preparation for his transfer to Kuoh was quite thorough.

His school uniform and some change of underwear was already prepared at Akeno's home so he didn't have any problem in getting ready for school. Also, he had enough time to prepare both his and Akeno's lunch with simple onigiri and tuna fillings.

It was simple for him to use Structural Analysis to find the kitchen and the location of all the ingredients in the temple where Akeno resided. This caused Akeno to become a bit miffed because she was looking forward to show him her own progress in the kitchen for the last 8 years but she conceded once she had a taste of his cooking.

She did however started to look at him more seductively than ever. No doubt she was planning something more perverted in store for him but Archer just pretended that he didn't notice. That way lies madness.

On another note, Archer was surprised when he was able to get a good look at himself in the bathroom mirror (Akeno didn't ambush him in the bathroom, thankfully). Before this morning, his hair was black and short and he had brown eyes while his face was pretty much the same as before he was reincarnated but now, although his face was still the same, his hair colour had become the same shade of white due to extensive use of Projection that his previous body had. The same thing had happened to his eyes as they've become steel colored.

Basically, he pretty much looked the same as when he was a Counter Guardian, only younger.

When he had brought this up with Akeno, she said that she didn't know what happened either. She was just glad that he was still alive so she never commented on it. He wondered if recovering his memories had caused the changes. If so, what other changes should he expect? He doubted that his stats would change as well to match the time he was a Servant but he decided to keep an eye out for it, just in case.

When he arrived with Akeno at one of the clubroom at Kuoh, Akeno led him to a teacher who in turn brought him to his classroom (he had already separated from Akeno by then) which turns out to be the same one Ise was in. Archer immediately realized that Ise had also become a Devil. Ise didn't recognize him at first due to the changes in his hair and eye colour and only realized it was him when he introduced his name to the class.

After a few conversations with Ise, Archer found out that he agreed to join Rias's peerage as it was too dangerous for him to be left with his own devices. He was being hunted by Fallen Angels after all. However, the most compelling reason for him to join was the chance to be close to two of the most popular girls in Kuoh. Namely, Rias and Akeno. He was also convinced because Rias told him that it was possible for him to be a Harem King if he became a High-Class Devil.

What a horny guy.

Although he was supposed to be friends with him, even Shirou usually tries to avoid him when he was in his Pervert Mode. Archer decided to do the same.

When lunch time arrived, Archer went to look for a quiet place to eat. He discarded the idea of eating on the roof because it was somehow crowded instead of empty. When he was wandering the grounds he spotted Ise and his two friends Matsuda and Motohama peeking into the kendo club's girl's changing room only a few meters away.

He wanted to escape before events that would lead to him being accused of being a pervert by the girls could happen (as they usually did due to his E-Rank Luck) but he was too late and he ended up being surrounded by a dozen angry girls that were wielding shinais to punish him. Matsuda and Motohama have already fled, leaving him and Ise to take the fall.

"Me and my E-Rank Luck."

"MEN!" One of the girls tried to hit him with her shinai with a standard kendo technique to score points.

In response, Archer just used the same technique that Saber used to disarm Taiga and took her shinai when Taiga challenged her to a match. Despite not using Reinforcement, his movement was too fast for the girl to even react before he was behind her and he had her shinai.

"Divine punishment!" Another girl tried to hit him and he just used the same technique to get a hold of her shinai too.

Now that he had two shinais however, he started to fight using his personal style against the girls. The style involves leaving obvious openings in his guard to predict where the enemy will try to strike and retaliate with his own attack after he has blocked their strike. It was a style that he has continued to perfect for centuries. This time however, Archer only concentrated on his defence by either parrying or deflecting all the attacks sent at him and never retaliated himself.

His purpose was to gauge his current body's capabilities, as he was only recently turned into a Devil. Also, he didn't really want to hurt the girls as he has no reason to. It's not like they were a threat to him anyway.

As a result, after being attacked from all sides by more than a dozen girls with shinais for more than 15 minutes, none of them was able to hit him or even make him move from where he was standing. All the girls have now collapsed on the ground exhausted.

"You girls have no stamina. You should focus on your basic training more." Archer gave his advice before he started leaving. Lunch break was almost up and he wanted to finish his bento in peace.

"Wait!" A girl that Archer noted was the captain of the club, from how the other girls had called her, called out to him.

"Yes?" Archer asked while only turning his head around to look at her with his peripheral vision instead of turning his whole body to face her.

"Who are you!?"

"Just an Archer." Archer decided to part with that cool phrase while being amused at the girl's dumbfounded expression.

Later, after class resumed, Ise entered the class with bruises and scratches all over his body. Apparently, he was too amazed at how Archer had fought off all the girls with ease that he forgot to run away himself. The girls who were frustrated with their loss took out all their pent up anger at Ise who was too stupid to realize an opening to escape when he saw one.

**- Scene Break, Kuoh Academy, After School Ended -**

Archer never felt more bored in his life as the subjects that he was being taught were those that he had already learned. So he was eager to exit the class when the bell that signified that school had ended rang.

It was at this moment that a bishounen entered the class.

"Hi. How are you doing?" The bishounen approached Ise and Archer who was sitting beside each other (this was due to the sitting arrangements).

"You are?" Archer asked in a relaxed tone. He already recognized the bishounen as one of the Devils associated with Rias Gremory. He wasn't sure if he was part of the so called 'peerage' though. He should really ask about that later.

Ise however, looked at the bishounen with half-lidded eyes. "And what business do you have here?"

"I'm Kiba Yuuto. I came here by the order of Rias Gremory-senpai. Please come with me."

"""""NO!"""""

This time it's the girl's screams.

"No, for Hyoudou and Kiba-kun to walk besides each other! Emiya-kun is fine but not Hyoudou!"

"You will get infected, Kiba-kun! Stay close to Emiya-kun!"

"I won't agree with the Kiba-kun×Emiya-kun×Hyoudou pair!"

"No, maybe its Hyoudou×Emiya-kun×Kiba-kun pair!?"

Looks like half the class (the female half) have gone ballistic. Teenage girls these days seem to like male on male pairings. Not like Archer even give a damn. They can gossip all they wanted for all he cared.

"Lead the way. Though, my guess is that we're headed to the Occult Research Club right?" The aforementioned club was where the Magic Circle he used with Akeno to come to Kuoh this morning.

"That's right." As he said this, he started walking ahead while Archer and Ise followed him.

"H-Hey, Ise!"

Matsuda shouted Ise's name.

"Don't worry, friend. I'm not going to have a fight."

"What are you going to do with this DVD, "Me, the Molester, and the Udon"!?"

Matsuda says it out loud while holding the DVD up high.

Ise's only response was to look out the window while Archer was suppressing the urge to just facepalm.

After that silly event, Kiba led Archer and Ise through the school and as Archer had expected, they were heading to the Occult Research Club. On the way however, Archer noticed that they were being watched by almost all the girls that they passed. Some of the girls from the kendo club even approached them and asked Archer for a rematch.

Archer wanted to just dismiss them but their clear and honest eyes made it quite hard for him to just ignore their request (damn hormones) so he agreed if it was just this once. He considered it to be a way for him to adjust with his new body, so it wasn't a _total_ waste of time.

There were no other interruptions as they headed to the Occult Research Club.

When they arrived, Kiba knocked on the club room's door. "Buchou, I've brought them."

A moment later came a reply from a female voice. "Yes, come in."

As all of them entered, Archer noticed that there was the sound of a shower coming from the back of the room. It seems that Rias or someone else was taking a quick bath. Also, there was a small girl with white hair and an expressionless face was sitting on a sofa opposite where he planned to sit. She was eating youkan quietly. A quick Structural Analysis told him all he needed to know what she was.

_A cat youkai? How did something like her became a Devil?_

Despite his curiosity, Archer decided to just mind his own business.

"Koneko-chan, this is Hyoudou Issei-kun and Emiya Shirou-kun. Ise-kun, Shirou-kun, this is Toujou Koneko-chan." After Kiba introduced them, Koneko gave a small bow to them which Archer and Ise returned.

Sitting down, Archer pulled out some daifuku that he made during a Home Economics class a few hours ago. Before he was able to eat it however, he noticed that Koneko was looking at the daifuku he was holding.

"Want some?"

She just nodded.

Thinking that there was no harm in it, Archer just passed her a daifuku that had a red bean paste filling. He was interested what a cat would think of his creations.

As soon as Koneko took her first bite (Archer could swore that he saw a lightning strike in the background), her expressionless face suddenly changed to someone who was in absolute bliss. The next second, the daifuku completely vanished from her hands and she was already wiping her mouth with that expressionless face of hers.

_This girl can give Saber a run for her money._

"How was it?"

"Delicious." Koneko answered simply, though she kept staring at the remaining daifukus.

"Sorry, but these are for everyone else. I'll make some more for you next time okay?"

"...Okay." Came another simple answer from her but the disappointment from her voice was evident despite her expressionless face.

A moment later, Rias came out of the shower. We could see her changing from the shadows on the curtain. This caused Ise to have a lecherous face which disgusted Koneko. Seriously, Archer was beginning to think that Devil's don't really care about modesty. Rias greeted them after she finished changing into her Kuoh uniform.

"Sorry. I worked until late last night so I needed to freshen up."

"Don't worry about it. It was for our sakes after all." Archer replied.

"Yeah. Thank you, Rias-senpai." Ise also expressed his gratitude.

"It's nothing. Oh, and please call me Buchou. So, how are two adjusting?"

"Other than having to come to school again, my appearance changing a bit, becoming more sensitive to light and feeling a bit lethargic during the day, not much different than before."

The part about being lethargic was something that Archer concluded was something that concerns a Devil's constitution. Since they were creatures of the night, they were probably weaker during the day.

"Me too. Since I'm already a student here, it wasn't really much of a change." Ise agreed with Archer.

"I see. That's good then. Oh, do you mind if i take one Shirou?" Rias pointed to the daifuku.

"Go ahead."

"I think I'll have some too." Said Akeno.

"You can give my share to Koneko-chan. I'm not really interested." Kiba said while offering his share to Koneko.

"Thank you, Yuuto-senpai." Despite being expressionless, Koneko's happiness seem to permeate the room.

"I wonder how good it is? Seeing Koneko earlier made me curious." Ise said while looking at his daifuku like it was something strange.

""""Itadakimasu.""""

Just like that, everyone took a bite of the daifuku and just like earlier with Koneko, all their faces started showing that blissful expression like they were in Heaven (this time, Archer was sure that the lightning strike in the background wasn't his imagination. It was actually there.).

"Wow...this is...really good. Somehow I feel like I can die happy now." Ise was even crying while eating the daifuku.

"I agree. I've eaten high class food prepared by the most skilled chefs but this is just...heavenly. ...I can't believe I just said that." Rias looked like she was in a trance.

"Oh, my. I didn't think that you would improve so much after 8 years. Fufufu." Akeno seems to be holding back her sexual desire. She was going to make sure that Shirou doesn't escape her tonight. She has so many 'punishments' planned for him.

"Delicious...more?" Koneko just gave her simple answer while looking at Archer pleadingly. It's a wonder she managed to pull it off even with that expressionless face of hers.

Kiba however, was becoming curious of how tasty Shirou's daifuku could be if everyone who ate them had_ that_ kind of reaction. He was regretting a bit that he gave his share to Koneko.

"I'll make more tomorrow. I promise." Archer on the other hand, was deciding what dessert to make for everyone tomorrow. It's been a long time since he was able to indulge in this hobby of his.

"Looks like you have many talents Shirou. Even your swordsmanship is remarkable." Rias commented while making plans on how to use Shirou's cooking talents to develop a new franchise.

"...Did you see me fight the kendo club during lunch?"

"Yes, I did. Yuuto saw it too didn't you?"

"It was impressive. I don't think even I could hold off all of them without even moving from where I was standing, and you didn't even use any magic." Kiba said while sounding impressed.

"Yeah, that was amazing! I was completely stunned when I saw what you did!" Ise said excitedly.

"Thank you."

To be honest, handling some girls who knew how to wield a shinai wasn't really that big a deal to Archer. He's fought Servants that were hundreds of times more powerful than those girls, so being praised for it didn't really make him happy even the slightest bit. Not that he would be happy if he was praised for defeating foes that were on par or stronger than Servants. It was just how he was.

"Alright then. Since we've introduced ourselves, let's talk about what happened yesterday." Rias declared nonchalantly. "Ise, can you please materialize your Sacred Gear like I taught you yesterday?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Saying that, Ise started to use some weird pose with both his hands and mumbled 'kamehameha'. As soon as he finished his pose, a red gauntlet appeared on his left hand. Archer was able to analyze the gauntlet and find out what it was.

_A _freaking_ dragon's soul is being sealed inside the thing! And it has the ability to double the owners stats multiple times too! If something like this feel into the hands of a Magus or a Dead Apostle the world would be doomed. Ugh. Just _thinking_ about a Magus becoming 10,000 times stronger with that thing is making me dizzy._

"As I've explained last night to Ise, this Sacred Gear was the reason that the Fallen Angel that called herself Amano Yuuma was trying to kill him last night."

"In order to seek shelter, Ise agreed to become part of my peerage and I needed to use 5 Pawn Pieces of which one was a Mutation Piece to turn him into a Devil. Shirou, who was coincidentally at the scene, died protecting Ise so I had to use one Pawn Piece to revive him." Rias started giving a simple summary of last night's events but there was one part that Archer didn't understand.

"What's a Pawn Piece and a Mutation Piece?"

"It's the system we Devils use to reincarnate a human or another species into a Devil. A High-Class Devil will be given 15 Evil Pieces that correspond to to the chess pieces that humans like to play Chess with to create their peerage. The High-Class Devil will be the King and they will have 1 Queen, 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights and 8 Pawns just like Chess."

"There are times that during their creation, one of the Evil Pieces would become a Mutation Piece that are worth more than their usual counterpart. For instance, Ise's Mutation Piece was valued to have the same worth as 4 Pawns." Rias continued her explanation. "The amount of Evil Pieces that's needed for a person to be reincarnated into a Devil varies according to the amount of potential one has."

In other words, Archer's potential was regarded as only worthy of being valued as 1 Pawn Piece while Ise's potential was valued as 8 Pawn Pieces in total. Not surprising, as he was a third rate Magus in his world while Ise has a Sacred Gear that could increase his powers indefinitely. It's a shame that Archer doesn't have the ability to Project it. He might be able to make a carbon copy of the gauntlet but without the dragon's soul, it would just be a normal gauntlet without the ability to double his stats.

"Is there any significance with being reincarnated with different kinds of Evil Pieces?" Archer decided to keep fishing for information instead of musing about pointless things like the value of his potential.

"Yes, there is. A person reincarnated using the Knight is given amazing agility, a Rook is given powerful strength and defence, a Bishop is given magic power while a Queen incorporates all the advantages of the Knight, Rook and Bishop."

"And the Pawn?" Since this was based on the game of Chess, Archer already had a suspicion a Pawn was most likely given the same kind of attribute that the game gives a Pawn.

"Pawns can use an ability called Promotion to promote into either a Knight, a Rook, a Bishop or a Queen. By the way, Akeno is my Queen, Yuuto has 1 Knight Piece and Koneko has 1 Rook Piece."

Looks like he was right. In Chess, Pawns who were able to reach deep into enemy territory can be turned into any other Chess Piece of their choosing other than the King. So, as a Pawn, he could promote into any piece of his choosing and he will have the same advantage as those who were reincarnated with the other pieces, though Promoting into a Queen would be best as it has all the attributes of the other pieces.

"Buchou. Were able to find out what my Sacred Gear is?" Ise appeared eager to know what his Sacred Gear can do.

"Not yet, I still have to-"

"It's called the Boosted Gear. It's a Longinus class Sacred Gear." Archer interrupted Rias.

"Eh?" Rias was surprised at having been interrupted with her explanation.

Everyone looked at Archer.

"Shirou-kun, how did- Did you use Structural Analysis?" Akeno seemed to have answered her own question.

"Yeah."

"Structural Analysis?" Rias who felt being left out of the loop decided to ask Akeno.

"Ever since I knew him, Shirou-kun had a strange ability to analyse any object that he sees which includes their structure, composition and even history. He calls it Structural Analysis." Akeno answered Rias.

"I see. That's...actually very useful. Shirou, the more I know about you, the more intriguing you become."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Is there any limitations to this...Structural Analysis?"

"Only that I can only analyse what my mind could understand and belongs to this world. Anything that's beyond human comprehension is impossible for me. Something like a piece of a meteorite is also impossible for me analyse because it doesn't belong in this world. Also, I have to either see it directly or through another person's memory. I can't analyse anything from photos and televisions."

"Basically, other than those limitations you can easily analyse anything else right?" It was Akeno who asked this time and she has a mischievous smile as if she was planning to tease him which was exactly what she was planning to do.

Archer already knew that he was going to be screwed but decides to just play along. After all, he was sure that he would be able to counter anything that Akeno might have come up with.

"Yes."

"So you can completely analyse a woman's body and all their secret parts?"

PFFFFTT!

Ise did a spit take. He was drinking tea that Akeno gave to everyone a while ago.

Koneko just looked disgusted.

Rias looked as if she hadn't reacted but she was clearly uncomfortable.

Kiba just smiled uncomfortably.

Akeno looked like she was suppressing her giggle.

_So that's what you're after. Well, it's gonna take more than that to try and make me embarrassed._

"Yes, actually. How do you think I know where all your sensitive places are?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

The whole room was silent. Everyone just looked at Archer dumbfounded. Even Akeno was stunned seeing that her ploy to tease Archer didn't seem to have worked. Ise was the one who recovered first.

"Shirou!"

"Yes?"

"Teach me Structural Analysis! That wonderful ability that lets you know all the secret parts of a woman just from seeing them! I WANT IT!"

_Looks like I activated his Pervert Mode. Then again, he's always like this._

"...Pervert." Koneko simply described both Shirou and Ise in that one word.

"Now, now. My culinary skills are also thanks to my Structural Analysis, you know? Since I have a complete understanding of the ingredients, all my dishes can be made perfectly. Or do you want me to stop using them? You won't be able to have some more of those daifukus you know?"

Koneko looked conflicted at this. On one hand, Structural Analysis can be considered the ultimate peeping tool. On the other hand, Shirou also uses it to make food like those **delicious** daifukus. She doesn't know whether to condemn Shirou and make him stop using that ability or ignore the whole issue so that she can taste some more of his cooking.

Archer just looked amused at Koneko's conflicted face. It was actually very cute.

"Shirou, stop bullying Koneko." Rias reprimanded Archer.

"Sorry, _master_. She was just so fun to tease."

If Rias reacted at the way Shirou addressed her, she didn't show it. She was already used to being called that back at home anyway and it was true that Shirou was now her servant. She just decided to go back to the topic about Ise's Sacred Gear which was identified as the Longinus Sacred Gear, the Boosted Gear.

To think that she would gain the Sekiryuutei as part of her peerage. She was very lucky.

"Now, then. Ise, let's talk about your Sacred Gear."

"Yes, Buchou!"

"Now that we know that your Sacred Gear is the Boosted Gear, this will be simple. Basically, your Boosted Gear is able to double your abilities multiple times every 10 seconds. For instance, if you use it once, it will double your abilities. Twice, it will quadruple it. Thrice, you'll be 8 times stronger and so on until you have enough power to even defeat a god. Hence, it's classification as a Longinus Sacred Gear."

"T-that's...wow. I-I can really become that strong?" Ise looked at the gauntlet in his hand while being amazed. He never thought that he would have such a powerful Sacred Gear.

"Yes. Provided that you have enough time to multiply your powers to surpass a god's, that is. If you were killed before that however, than it's useless." Archer gave a more detailed explanation to Ise while mentally making a note to himself to keep an eye on Ise, lest he go down a path that would potentially ruin many lives.

"Shirou's right but that's why you have to train hard to master it. Understood?"

"Yes, Buchou!"

"_Master_, you haven't told him about the Transfer ability yet."

Rias blinked a few times before speaking. "Transfer?" She asked while cocking her head a little in a cute pose.

"It's the Boosted Gear's secondary ability to transfer the accumulated energy that the user has stored after multiplying their powers. It can be transferred to almost anything, from increasing the healing aspect of a medicine to increasing the power of another Sacred Gear." Archer explained in more detail what he was able to glimpse from his Structural Analysis of the Boosted Gear's abilities. There were actually more, like how to achieve the Boosted Gear's Balance Breaker, the ultimate state of activation for a Sacred Gear, but he decided to keep that information to himself for now.

There's no telling what Ise would do if he suddenly gained a power that's enough to conquer the world.

...With his perverted tendencies, Archer figured that Ise might just build a colossal harem with all the beautiful women in the world. Despite how silly the image sounded, it's actually a very bad thing to happen in it's own way. For one thing, if Ise used the Boosted Gear to increase his libido, he might end up impregnating thousands of women which will eventually cause the world to be overpopulated. Not to mention, this doesn't even take into account the feelings of women he impregnates.

Archer never thought that there would come a day that he would worry about a person's libido being the cause of the world's instability. This situation was _really_ absurd.

"I see. That means, Ise will be suitable for both fighting on the frontlines or providing support from the rear. Alright, now that Ise's Sacred Gear has been sorted out, it's your turn now Shirou. Can you pull out your sword type Sacred Gear?"

At first, Archer was confused at Rias's command. He doesn't have a Sacred Gear. A moment later however, he figured that she must be talking about his Projection of Kanshou and Bakuya from last night. Ise must have told her about it.

Silently, Archer activated his Magic Circuits. It might be because he was turned into a Devil but after he experimented during the whole day, he found out that he could activate his Magic Circuits without chanting his usual aria, Trace On. Not only that, his Od felt different than when he was human. He supposed it was because his Od was converted into Demonic Energy.

Fortunately, even if Demonic Energy felt different than Od, they seemed to react the same in regards to performing his Magecraft. All he needed to do was to get used to the feeling of Demonic Energy when using Magecraft. That said, he was sure that he still needed to chant the full ten count of his aria to activate his Reality Marble.

Flooding his Magic Circuits with Demonic Energy, Archer Projected Kanshou and Bakuya in his hands.

"So this is your sword type Sacred Gear. What are their names?"

"Kanshou and Bakuya. By the way, they're not Sacred Gears."

"Eh? What do you mean? If they're not Sacred Gears, then what are they?" Rias asked looking puzzled.

"I guess you can call them pr-magical constructs. I made them using magic." Archer said while almost blurting out the word 'prana'. He still needed to get used to the different terms of his world and this world.

Archer had been thinking whether or not he should reveal his ability to make swords and just pass it off as a Sacred Gear like everyone had originally assumed. Normally, he would've kept that piece of information to himself as long as possible but his current situation where he would be serving a Devil for possibly decades would only garner distrust among his peers. Of course, he would still keep what he was truly capable of a secret. He still needed to know how much he could trust Rias's group before he was willing to tell them anything else.

"Ara. You mean you can make swords appear out of thin air using magic? I've never seen you do that before." It was Akeno who posed the question this time.

"It's something I learned just recently." To be more specific, he had re-learned how to do it last night when he recovered his memories.

"Regardless. Whether it's a Sacred Gear or not, according to Ise, it was strong enough to deflect a spear made of Holy element so it should be quite strong. How many of them can you make during a fight?"

"A couple hundred."

This estimation was of course after he was turned into a Devil. Compared to his original Od reserves, his Demonic Energy was about twice the number of his Od. Not only that, the quality of his Magic Circuits was also much better than before as his current Magic Circuits can hold up to 20 units each as opposed to his original Magic Circuits that can hold only 10 units each.

Rias seemed satisfied with his estimation. "Good. That should be enough in a fight or two. Now that we've settled the issue of your abilities, it's time to tell you about your duties as a Devil."

Saying that, Rias gestured to a pile of leaflets that were on her desk.


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fate Stay Night or High School DxD. They belong to Kinoko Nasu and Ichiei Ishibumi respectively. If I did, I would have already created an Ilya route in the VN with a fully-grown and matured Ilya as the heroine and make a badass protagonist for High School DxD instead of a pervert like Issei.**

**- Story Start -**

"UOOOOOHHHHHHH!"

Deep in the mountains, Ise currently finds himself running for his life.

THWACK. THWACK. THWACK.

"GYAAAAHHHH." Three arrows were shot towards him, barely missing his arms and legs as he frantically evades them as if his life depended on it.

"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?" Ise screams with all the power in his lungs at his attacker.

_"Yep."_

"DON'T ADMIT IT LIKE IT'S GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU, DAMNIT!"

CRACK.

Suddenly, as he was running with all his might to escape from certain doom, his foot fell on a bundle of leaves that if looked closely, it could be easily discerned that it was put there to hide something. Also, the sound of his foot stepping on something and breaking it had clearly confirmed it.

_"You should pay more attention to your surroundings. You've triggered another one of my traps."_

Before his aggressor had even finished his line Ise already knew that he had inadvertently activated one of the traps that were spread out around the forest. It's not as if it was the first or second one either.

KROOM. KROOM. KROOM.

And as expected, giant boulders were heading his way, destroying everything in their path.

"FIRST THE PIT OF DEATH, THEN SWINGING BARBED TREES AND NOW THIS!? SHIROU! I'LL GET YOU FOR THIIIIIS!"

Archer just chuckled at Ise's predicament. He was currently watching Ise running for his life from a high tree that was a safe distance away from the carnage with a bow in his left hand and was communicating with Ise using an earpiece that Rias had given him.

As he continued his observation, he could see Ise escaping from being turned into a pancake by positioning himself between the small opening that existed between the boulders and timing his jump into the small gap. It was a reckless move but definitely an effective one as he has now positioned himself in an area where the boulders have made a clear path for him to move without having to worry about being caught in another trap. Any traps that were placed there were obviously already destroyed by the boulders.

"Alright, Ise. That's it for today. Let's head back."

_"Huff...I'm alive...huff...hahaha...huff...I'm still alive."_

Archer could see that Ise was currently at his limit as he immediately collapsed on his back after he informed him that the training session from hell was over.

"I'm not gonna carry you back to the mansion, so haul your own ass over there."

_"Huff...you're a Devil...huff."_

"We both are, idiot."

**- Scene Break -**

"So, how was it?"

"His reaction time has gotten better. Although barely, he managed to evade some of the arrows I shot at him. His stamina's also increased a lot. He lasted the whole hour compared to the 15 minutes when we first started."

"Good work."

Currently, Archer was back at the Occult Research Club giving his report to Rias on Ise's progress on his training. Ise had already left as there was nothing else for him to do. Archer gave him some packed sandwiches that he had made while waiting for Ise at the mansion with the Magic circle. Archer couldn't just leave Ise behind because apparently, Ise's Demonic Energy was so low that it wasn't even enough to use a Magic Circle by himself. Thus, Ise has to tag along with one of the club members in order to use a Magic Circle.

Around more than a week ago, shortly after he and Ise joined the club, Archer had volunteered to supervise Ise's training. The reason that he volunteered was because he saw how Rias was training Ise.

Rias was making Ise do basic training by making him run around the neighborhood while motivating him using his dream to become a Harem King. Fearing that one day Ise might really cause the world's instability with his libido if people like Rias kept enticing him with his perverted ambition, Archer volunteered to take up Ise's training instead.

At first, Rias was quite skeptical that Archer would be suitable for the job but after complying to his wishes to allow him the use of one of her mansions (Archer had asked if she had any properties in a place that's far from civilization), Archer had proven that he was quite a merciless trainer.

Archer's training methods that pushed Ise to his limits was very effective as it combined Ise's need for basic training to develop his body (which was very lacking) while making him more sensitive to danger. Both elements were important to Ise as his Boosted Gear saps his stamina with every 'Boost' and he will need to be able to avoid being defeated before he has 'Boosted' enough times to be able to overpower his enemies. Not to mention that the higher his base parameters were, the less "Boost' was needed to accomplish said feat.

"By the way, Yuuto asked if you were free today to spar with him and Koneko again. How about it?"

"I don't mind. He might have a few new swords for me 'steal' from him."

After Archer had revealed his abilities to create swords from thin air, Rias had deduced that he had most likely created them with the help of Structural Analysis to obtain the blueprints for his weapons. As such, the next day after their induction into the club, Rias had interrogated Archer for more specifics on his sword making ability.

Seeing that lying to her would just be bad in the long run, Archer finally explained his Projection Magecraft in more detail. By this point, everyone in the club already knew about his ability to Project any sword that he laid his eyes on. Of course, he never mentioned anything about his Reality Marble to them or what _kind _of weapons that were in his repertoire.

He was still reluctant to trust everyone in the club about **that **but it was pretty much a gamble because if he was unlucky enough (as usual), he'd be neck deep in a situation where he would have to use some of his more...uncommon weapons. If the club found out about his other Noble Phantasms, he would have to explain _where_ he had seen them to be able to copy them and that would just open up _another_ whole can of worms.

Not only that, he had made one small blunder from his fight with the girls of the Kendo Club. It was due to habit from his days as a Servant in the Grail War but announcing himself as Archer had revealed some more of what he was capable of, thus it was no surprise that Rias had found out about it as well.

Deciding to just get on with it, he displayed his skills as an archer to hit any target within 4 kilometers with pinpoint accuracy using an Altered sword. It was an irrational decision made after having to figure out where the line was between how much he should reveal to avoid mistrust in the future and how much he should hide to not reveal his trump card in case his current companions turned on him even if all the evidence points to them being trustworthy. They were Devils after all.

He almost cursed himself for letting his guard down too much around the club members but somehow he just couldn't help to want to trust them. Shirou's feelings were most definitely affecting Archer's choices. It doesn't help that Rias was very affectionate to the members of her peerage.

Archer's previous display of swordsmanship and archery had also somehow aroused Kiba's desire for a spar with him. It was not something like him being a battle maniac but more how male youths desire to pit themselves against their peers to see where they would rate themselves when compared to them.

All in all, it was quite an interesting spar.

Kiba's agility as a Knight gave him the edge when it comes to pure parameters but Archer was more skilled and experienced than him by a wide margin. As a result, the two were in a stalemate when both were using only Reinforced wooden swords and Archer didn't Reinforce his body. Kiba would always try to circumvent Archer's defenses with his agility and skill but Archer's superior ability to read his opponents would always thwart him, though having lower parameters meant that he couldn't get a clean hit on Kiba.

It was later when they decided to take the spar up a notch that things started to escalate.

Kiba had revealed his Sacred Gear.

Sword Birth.

A Sacred Gear to make Demonic Swords according to the user's will and imagination. It was a Sacred Gear that was both superior and inferior compared to Unlimited Blade Works as Sword Birth completely depends on the user's ability to think up of what swords it could produce while Unlimited Blade Works can copy _almost_ any kind of swords it had encountered no matter what kind of absurd ability it has.

In the right hands, Sword Birth _might_ have the potential to create swords that _might_ be on par with Archer's Noble Phantasms but without extensive research, Archer couldn't prove his hypothesis.

After pulling out his Sacred Gear, Kiba started to wield various types of Demonic swords against Archer which Archer countered using Projected copies of the Demonic Swords and his own skill with the sword. As the spar continued, Kiba started showing signs of exhaustion while Archer was less ragged.

The reason was simple.

Kiba had utilized more of his agility to get around Archer's defenses and so his stamina was used up faster while Archer minimized his movements and used up the barest amount of his stamina as needed. Not only that, Archer had more options on how to counter Kiba's offenses thanks to the various Demonic Swords that Kiba showed him. The Demonic Swords also cost less than some of the Noble Phantasms Archer had that had the same elemental attributes.

Thanks to that, Archer was able to slowly overpower Kiba using several tricks he knew using the Demonic Swords such as disrupting the footing around Kiba using an Ice element Demonic Sword or using a Wind element Demonic Sword to throw dust up in the air and impair Kiba's sight. Archer finally decided the sparring session when he Projected one of Kiba's Fire element Demonic Swords and overcharged it to make an improvised flash bang grenade.

Just as Archer had planned, the flash had temporarily blinded Kiba and he took this chance to disarm him and at the same time threw him to the ground using one of the Judo techniques that he learned during his life.

His spar with Kiba earned quite a lot of admiration from the other club members but to Archer, while it was interesting, he considered it as nothing special. After all, despite the heated spar, Archer didn't even resort to using Reinforcement on himself.

Ever since, he and Kiba would sometimes spar when they had some free time. Even Koneko started to join them. She would join Kiba and team up against him. It was only then that Archer started to resort to Reinforcing his body. Even so, Kiba's and Koneko's teamwork would sometimes cause his defeat. Although he was still holding back, Archer was still impressed with them.

So far, he's won 4 out of 6 sparring sessions with them.

On a side note, Koneko started being more comfortable with him when he admitted that his ability to analyse a woman's sensitive body parts using Structural Analysis was just a joke. Although it was true that his Structural Analysis was stronger in this world due to Gaia's weaker presence, it was only enough for him to identify whether a person was human or not and what kind of race they were from.

That said, he could easily discern a woman's BWH but he kept that piece of information to himself.

Ise and Akeno was disappointed after knowing the truth. It was easy to figure out that Ise was planning some perverted things with Structural Analysis. Akeno on the other hand, was probably hoping that Archer would use his Structural Analysis on her and apply any information he gleaned on her during the several times she sneaked into his bed.

After finding out that he was paying for his own rent, Rias had convinced him to move into one of the dorms that her family was supervising. Since it would cut his expense cost, Archer had easily agreed. Unfortunately, it made it easier for Akeno to come into his room at night as there was already a Magic Circle in the dorms for easy transportation and since he has no idea how to create a Bounded Field that doesn't allow entry to non-hostile personnel, Akeno could come into his room unhindered.

It was fortunate that both of them haven't lost their virginity yet but there were a few close calls, especially the night he won his first spar with Kiba. Akeno's sexual desire was at an all time high that night and it took all of Archer's self-control not to fall for her sensuality and just pop her cherry.

In the end he managed to make her masturbate 5 times that night using his mouth, tongue and fingers to finally sexually relieve her. He himself had ejaculated 4 times with Akeno's techniques with her hands, tits and mouth.

Ever since, Akeno would come to his room almost every night to have some more 'skinship', though it only escalated to a sensual night two other times. The other nights, they slept together in the nude. Well, at least Akeno was naked. He made sure to be wearing a full set of clothes every night.

Archer was amazed that he managed to keep their virginity in tact even after how far they had taken things. He will have to be mentally prepared for when Akeno finally managed to seduce him enough and they finally had proper sex. He was not deluded enough to think that he would be able to withstand Akeno's advances forever.

That girl was a sexual dynamite.

The fact that Akeno was serious in building a relationship with him only makes it harder to discourage her. Apparently, Akeno had also managed to get support from Yukari after he gave her Yukari's cellphone number. The cellphone was something that Shirou managed to sneak to Yukari after he had asked one of Yukari's schoolmates to act as an intermediary to hand it to her. Of course, she kept it secret from their parents.

Basically, Archer was being slowly pushed into a corner. Ever since those two had joined forces the number of times he was in a compromising situation have increased exponentially. Like the time Akeno ambushed him in the bath or the time she lured him to the gym equipment storage room or the time when she sneaked onto the bed in the infirmary where he was resting due to lack of sleep the other night from hunting Stray Devils that the Gremorys had missed.

Still, in addition to being able to reconnect again, both Yukari and Akeno seem to be hatching out a plot with a little help from Rias to get Yukari away from the Himejima clan. Although he wasn't sure why they're trying to keep it a secret from him, he couldn't really think that it was a bad thing.

If only Rias and Yukari would stop trying to encourage Akeno to do some more lewd things to him so that he would crumble to his desires sooner.

If Barakiel ever finds out about some of the things that he and Akeno have been doing he was definitely going to be in a world of pain. What's worse was that he can't stop thinking that if that happened, it might actually be a form of divine punishment.

"It's good that Ise's training is going well. If only he's able to form a contract properly with his clients then there wouldn't be anymore problems."

Rias sighed.

"I'm amazed that he was able to get a good feedback from his clients without actually fulfilling the contract too." Rias said with a troubled expression.

After Archer and Ise's induction, they were at first sent to handout fliers to all the houses around the neighborhood. While Ise used his bicycle to travel to each house, Archer just went to the roof of Kuoh's main building and shot the fliers into the mailboxes with his arrows.

It was quite tricky to time his Projected arrow's dispersal back into prana so that it would disappear a split second before it hit the mailboxes. This was to make sure that only the fliers would get inside the mailboxes without any damages done to the mailboxes themselves.

Once they had finished, they finally debuted as Devils after being requested by some people to fulfill their wishes.

Archer's clients were mainly cafes or food stalls that found themselves in hard times and needed some new dishes that can attract more customers. Needless to say, he was successful in forming his contracts.

Ise on the other hand, failed to form the contracts he was supposed to but somehow his clients gave him a good feedback. Apparently, he had accompanied his clients in enjoying their hobbies.

"Don't think too much about it,_ Master_. Weirder things have happened."

"You're probably right. I just hope he'll be able to form a proper contract soon."

"Well, _master_. Since the time for our normal club activities are up, I'll just excuse myself for now."

"That's fine then. See you tonight." Rias said while smiling at Archer.

Despite Rias's smile, Archer could still see some hint of sadness she was trying to hide. Archer knew the reason was because of him. The truth was that, she and Akeno knows that he was keeping some secrets from all of them but both of them never pressed him for anything that he doesn't want to reveal.

_"I hope that one day, you would trust me enough to tell me what's troubling you." Said Rias with a sad smile._

_"I don't care what secrets you have, just as long as we're together again." Akeno just hugged him with a smile that tells him that she was content just to have him here with her._

Those were their very words to him and it caused his guilty conscience to resurface every time he recalls them. Rias and Akeno never brought up the subject again, content in earning his trust slowly until he was ready to share with them his secrets.

Despite his reluctance, it was times like these that Archer wished he could find a reason to trust those girls soon and just come clean. He knew that he was becoming soft for thinking like that but he couldn't really complain.

After all, after centuries of suffering under Alaya's contract, being able to even _feel_ these kinds of emotions again made him feel...human.

"I'll bring some desserts. What would you like, _master_?"

Rias immediately perked up at this. The small hint of sadness from before had completely disappeared. "How about a strawberry shortcake?"

"Will do." Archer smiled softly at Rias. It might have been only a temporary solution to cheer her up but Archer thought that he'll just take what he could get.

Exiting the clubroom, Archer begins to make mental a list of ingredients for him to buy to make a strawberry shortcake.

**- Scene Break -**

_Oh, you have got to be kidding me!_

On the way to the nearest convenience store to buy the needed ingredients for a strawberry shortcake, Archer had coincidentally bumped into Ise at a park. The moment he saw Ise however, he was sure that the perverted boy was getting himself into trouble gain.

The reason?

He was accompanying a nun.

They were both currently enjoying the egg and cheese sandwich that Archer had previously made for Ise but just a few moments ago, Archer had arrived at the park just in time to see the nun heal a young boy's scratched knee with a green light that Archer had guessed was most likely a healing type Sacred Gear.

It was a moment later that he recognized Ise's visage who was talking with the nun as Archer was too concentrated on the nun herself to realize Ise's presence sooner. A moment later, Archer recognized the nun's gestures as her being hungry.

As Archer was at the opposite end of the park and was behind them, they never realized his presence as Ise offered the nun some of the packed sandwiches.

Since the scene looked like a date to another person's point of view, Archer would've normally just left them alone. Unfortunately, he and Ise are now both Devils that were the traditional enemies of the Church so he has to intervene in this situation before it got worse.

Not to mention that Archer could easily tell that Ise was smitten with the nun if his happy expression was anything to go by.

_If this goes on, this will definitely end badly._

Archer had enough experience to know that love that blossoms between two enemy factions tend to end in tragedy most of the time. Akeno was the best example of said tragedy.

Unless the couple intends to make a revolution to seek peace between the two factions, their only other option was to flee but that will also mean that they will become fugitives fated to live a life on the run from the factions that they betrayed.

_Considering that the two factions in question have been at war for millennia, the latter option is more likely what those two might choose. *Sigh* Why do these things always have to be so complicated?_

Having made his decision Archer called out to Ise. "Ise, what are you doing?"

Startled at having his name being called suddenly, Ise turned around from his seat. "Shirou? What are you doing here?"

"I asked first." Archer said with an annoyed tone.

"Uhh...I'm guiding...hmm? Sorry, I didn't get your name." Ise asked the nun sheepishly.

"AH! I forgot to introduce myself!" Panicking a little, the nun immediately introduced herself.

"Pleased to meet you. My name is Asia Argento." Asia bowed a little while smiling at Archer and Ise.

Despite meeting her for only around ten seconds, Archer could already figure out Asia's personality from her smile. Asia's smile that was filled with happiness practically radiated kindness and naivety. There was no hint of any ulterior motive or ill intentions. She was the kind of person that would never wish any misfortune upon anyone even if they're Devils.

There were many times during his quest to uphold his ideal that Archer had defended these kind of people from harm. He even owed some of those people his life. Basically, he could easily tell that Asia was that kind of person.

"I'm Hyoudou Issei. You can call me Ise."

"Pleased to meet you too, Miss Asia. I'm Emiya Shirou. Please call me Shirou." Archer smiled using his most gentlemanly smile. "Now that we have introduced ourselves, care to tell me what you were planning to do to Miss Asia, Ise?"

"Why do you sound like I was going to commit a crime? I was just guiding Asia to the nearest church. She got lost because she couldn't read or speak Japanese." Ise narrowed his eyes at Archer.

"Yes! Ise-san was guiding me to the church that I was appointed to. Our meeting was definitely thanks to God!"

Looking at Asia who was currently praying, Archer could guess why Ise could easily become smitten with her. Asia had long blonde hair, a very cute face and green eyes that were filled with innocence. She was quite the beauty even for foreigners despite not being fully matured yet and her innocent aura would drive many people to have a strong desire to protect her whether male or female.

"Is that so? Well, once you two finish those sandwiches, I'll accompany you to the- Hm? Hold on... Ise, is the church you're talking about the one in the outer part of this town?"

"Yeah, that's the only one I know around here."

Archer frowned at Ise's reply.

"Is something wrong, Shirou-san?"

"The church that Ise's talking about was abandoned and has become a run-down building a long time ago. I don't think it's still operational."

"Ah, I believe that's the one. They did say that it was an old church."

Archer's suspicions were increased after hearing Asia's confirmation.

_Could it be?...I'll have to investigate this._

"I see. Well, let's get going then. The sun's coming down and I don't think you want to be late."

"He's right. Come on, Asia."

"Yes, Ise-san!"

After that, the trio left the park and started heading to the church.

In the middle of their walk however, Archer whispered to Ise. _"Ise, if anything happens get ready to fight or flee when I tell you so."_

_"W-What? Why?"_ Ise asked full of confusion.

_"I'll explain later. Just get ready. Hopefully, I'm wrong and nothing happens."_

_"O-Okay." _Ise still didn't understand their situation but decided to just follow his friend's lead.

After a few minutes, the trio arrived at the church. Just as Archer said, the church was run-down and very old but the light coming from inside meant that there were people currently residing in the church. Both Archer and Ise could feel some chill in their spines the moment they laid eyes on the building.

Asia sighed in relief at having arrived at her destination. "Yes, this is the-"

Before Asia could finish her sentence, a surge of killing intent was sent their way. It was so filled with hatred that even Ise and Asia could feel it despite not being trained to perceive it.

"E-Eh? W-What's-?"

Asia who was confused by the sudden change in atmosphere could only tremble in fear, thus she could not move away in time to dodge a spear of light that was suddenly shot at her from inside the church.

"ASIA!" Fortunately, Archer's warning to Ise made him shift into combat mode and he was able to pull Asia away from the attack before it hit her.

"Boosted Gear! Promotion: Queen!" The moment Asia was in his arms, Ise retreated behind Archer while activating his Sacred Gear and immediately used Promotion to increase his battle potential. All those training in the mountains with Archer was paying off.

**Boost!**

A voice came from the Boosted Gear, signaling Ise's first power up.

Archer who had already silently Promoted to Queen the moment he saw the church, Projected Kanshou and Bakuya in his hands when the surge of killing intent had hit them and was now deflecting a few more of the spears of light that was shot towards them.

From the church, more figures that were wearing hoods to hide their faces emerged from the church and were wielding swords that were made of light. Not only that, 4 figures with black wings, Fallen Angels, also appeared on the roof of the church.

And one of them was someone he had already met.

"YOU! How dare you show your insignificant self to me again!"

The person who was looking at him with utter hatred was none other than the Fallen Angel who had killed him and called herself Amano Yuuma.

"Oh? Is this the guy who cut off your arm Raynare?" A Fallen Angel with blonde hair styled in twin short side ponytails and blue eyes said. She also wore a Gothic Lolita attire.

"Hoh? He deflected our attacks like they were nothing. This might be good entertainment." This time, the only male Fallen Angel in the group gave his two cents.

"Hmph! Whatever. They're just insignificant Low-Class Devils. Let's just kill them." The fourth Fallen Angel was a tall and buxom woman with long, navy blue hair that obscured her right eye.

_Damn! I knew it! _

When he heard that Asia was appointed to an abandoned church, he already suspected that it might have been taken over by either Stray Exorcists or Fallen Angels.

Archer had hoped that he was wrong and that Asia was just sent there to help them rebuild the church, in which case, he and Ise might not have been attacked by the Angels or Exorcists as he and Ise had been guiding one of their own without harming her which can be interpreted as an act of kindness.

**Boost!**

From behind him, Archer could hear Ise's Boosted Gear signaling Ise's second power up. However, Ise's powers were currently still not enough to handle their opponents. He would have to buy Ise more time to multiply his powers.

_No time to hesitate!_

Since they were outnumbered, Archer decided to use one of his most reliable attack method when handling large numbers of enemies.

Flooding his Magic Circuits with Demonic Energy, Archer Projected a dozen of Kiba's Demonic Swords that have different attributes in the air around him.

If this was his original world and body, this act would've already cut down Archer's Prana reserves by more than half but this current world had cut his Prana usage to a third of what he was used to when using Projection and he has more Demonic Energy than his original Od.

Not to mention his current Magic Circuits were of higher quality and his use of Promotion further increased his overall parameters. Add to that, the more abundant mana that exist in this world and the fact that they are currently on a Leyline, Archer's reserves were only cut down less than a twentieth.

"W-What the?"

"Are all those Sacred Gears?"

"How does he have so many?"

The Stray Exorcists that at first were trying to surround them had paused in their assault seeing his display of flying swords. Archer didn't miss this chance.

"Sword Barrel."

"Full Barrage."

"Fire!"

Not letting the chance for his enemies to compose himself, Archer bombarded the Stray Exorcists with all his Demonic Swords while at the same time, Projecting more when the ones he already Projected was launched.

"GYAAH!"

"T-THERE"S TOO MANY OF THEM!"

"HELP!"

"Y-YOU DAMN DEV- AAAGGHH!"

All the Stray Exorcists were in dire straits as they didn't have enough strength or skill to deflect or parry the Demonic Swords that were shot towards them at the speed of 320 meters/second which was the average speed of a .22 caliber bullet.

"SHIT! That was close!"

"What the hell Raynare!? Why didn't you tell us he could do that?"

"Shut up! He didn't use it last time!"

"GYAAHAHA! Now this just got more interesting!"

Of course, Archer had also shot his swords at the 4 Fallen Angels on the roof. Unfortunately, they had flew and scattered to different directions to evade his bombardment.

Despite the one sided bombardment however, Archer didn't even launch the swords at their maximum velocity yet. He was still trying to get a feel to this world's being's power levels. Archer felt that his sparring with Kiba and Koneko was still...lacking something, so he deemed that he shouldn't use Kiba's and Koneko's power levels as the only 'measuring stick'.

**Boost!**

That was Ise's 6th Boost. He had already Boosted 3 times during Archer's bombardment. Ise was holding Asia tightly in his arms while keeping an eye on the surrounding and powering himself up. He was determined to protect her from any harm so he was preparing himself for when his powers would be needed.

That said he was still amazed by Archer's one sided battle.

"Woah. I knew you were strong Shirou, but...I've never seen you do this before."

"That's because it's the first time I've ever used it in this life." This was technically true as after being reincarnated in this world, Archer had never used this ability yet. "Don't worry about me. Just concentrate on powering yourself up and keep Asia safe."

"I know. I'm not gonna let any of these scumbags lay even a finger on her!" In the past, he was forced to just watch as a friend died saving him because of his own affairs and he was powerless to do anything about it. Never again. This time, _he _will be the one doing the protecting.

**Boost!**

"I-Ise-san."

"Don't worry, Asia. We'll definitely protect you." Ise smiled reassuringly at Asia.

"Y-Yes. T-Thank you." She said softly while clinging to Ise's shirt. Her face was red and she was a bit flustered.

To Asia, this was the first time that someone had tried to protect her. Before this, she was treated as a saint and people worshiped her but none of them had really tried to befriend her. It was when she had healed a Devil using her Twilight Healing that she had lost even those bonds and ended up joining a group of Rogue Exorcists and Fallen Angels.

Now however, a Devil she barely knew (at least, she thought that he was a Devil since her colleagues had called him that) was currently trying to protect her at the risk of his own life even though by their beliefs alone, they were supposed to be enemies. Despite the carnage that was happening around her and the confusion she has about why her supposed colleagues were trying to kill her, she couldn't help but feel happy.

At long last, her prayers were answered.

Her life long wish had finally been granted.

She had made a friend.

**Boost!**

As Ise reached his 8th Boost, Archer's bombardment of the Stray Exorcists finally ended. The place was in ruins with dead bodies and craters everywhere with signs of scorch marks, slashes and even ice. This was the result of bombarding the Stray Exorcists with Demonic Swords that had different elemental attributes.

"Tch! Those stupid humans weren't even good enough as canon fodder."

"That's why humans are so useless."

"Heh. We'll just have to settle this ourselves."

"Let's just kill these insects and extract Twilight Healing from the nun as planned."

Even if all the Stray Exorcists were defeated, the 4 Fallen Angels were the real threat. All Fallen Angels possessed more magical power and base parameters than a normal human by a wide margin, thus they were a greater threat than the Stray Exorcists. Not to mention that their spears of light are more lethal to him now since he was now a Devil who's weakness is the holy element.

Still, Archer was sure that he could easily take on all four of them at once with some of his Noble Phantasms but since he decided not to reveal those Trump Cards of his just yet, he'll have to make do with Kanshou, Bakuya and Kiba's Demonic Swords.

That said, Archer was also sure that he could still take them all on quite easily even with his current weaker armaments. After all, he was still holding back on them and they were already in dire straits.

**Boost!**

"Here they come. Get ready!" Archer warned Ise.

"Alright! Nine times is my current limit but it should be enough for this fight!"

**Explosion!**

"Asia. Stay behind me okay?"

"Y-Yes!"

"Ise! I'll take the male and the one in the Gothic Lolita dress. You alright with the other two?"

"Yeah. I have a score to settle with one of them."

As both of them had decided on their foes, Archer quickly launched a few more of his Projected Demonic Swords at the center of where the 4 Fallen Angels were gathering. His intention was not to hit them but to separate them.

As planned, the Fallen Angels divided into two groups consisting of the targets that both of them had agreed on. Archer headed to the right while Ise went to the left. Both of them had their bat wings out and was flying to their respective opponents.

Archer had Projected Kanshou and Bakuya in his hands while Ise was amassing his Demonic Energy in his gauntlet. With both of them having Promoted to Queen and Archer Reinforcing his body to the limit while Ise had Boosted 9 times, the duo's movement was too fast for each of their first victims to react in time.

SCHICK!

"Dragon Shot!"

As a result, Ise was able to shoot a concentrated form of his Demonic Energy that was strengthened to become 512 times stronger at point blank range to the buxom Fallen Angel and completely vaporized her while Archer had decapitated the Gothic Lolita Fallen Angel so fast that her face was still making a confused expression as if she didn't even realize that she was already dead as her head fell to the ground.

Both didn't even have time to scream in pain.

"MITTELT! KALAWARNER!"

As Raynare screamed the names of her former colleagues, Ise and Archer immediately engaged their next targets. Unfortunately, their foes were ready for them this time. Archer's and Ise's success in taking out their first opponents easily was because their foes were completely underestimating them. They had judged them as mere insects unworthy of their attention while feeling secured in their knowledge of outnumbering Archer 4 to 1 as they haven't recognized Ise as a threat yet and it caused them to let their guard down.

This mistake despite Archer's show of power had led to the swift deaths of Mittelt and Kalawarner.

However, unlike their dead colleagues, the male Fallen Angel, Dohnaseek and Raynare, Ise's ex-girlfriend who used the alias Amano Yuuma, had already assessed Archer as a credible threat and now that Ise has shown that he has enough firepower to completely vaporize one of their own, the both of them had become incredibly dangerous in the eyes of the two Fallen Angels.

It was only due to this that Dohnaseek was able to block Archer's strike with the married blades by creating one spear of light in each of his hands while Raynare formed a spear of light in her right hand and used it as a close range weapon to keep Ise at a distance.

"How dare you! A lowly Devil like you! You'll pay for this!"

"Shut up! You're the one who started it! And don't think I've forgotten how you killed Shirou last time!"

Ise countered Yuuma, no, Raynare's accusations. He was angry at the memory of Shirou dying in his arms from blood loss after being stabbed by Raynare's spear of light and him not being able to do a single thing to save his savior. Ever since, he swore to become stronger so that the same thing would never happen again. That's why, despite his complaints, Ise never abandoned his training with Shirou in the mountains no matter how hellish it was.

Besides, if he wants to become a Harem King, he would first have to make sure that he was strong enough to protect the girls in his harem when he finally receives the Evil Pieces needed to make his peerage.

For now, he will have to be content with being strong enough to defeat Raynare.

After they were reincarnated into Devils, Ise had already spoken in length with Shirou about his feelings concerning Raynare and her trying to kill him. As Shirou lost his life in that very incident, Ise thought that Shirou had the right to speak his mind about it. As a person who was directly involved, Shirou's advise to Ise to accept the reality that he was fooled by Raynare in order to get closer to him so that she can assassinate him was easier for Ise to swallow no matter how bitter it felt.

That's right.

It didn't matter that she had been his first girlfriend.

It didn't matter that he had planned their first date carefully to make sure it would become a great date.

It didn't matter that he had already made plans for Christmas so the both of them could enjoy it together.

It didn't matter that he had sworn to make sure that she was happy for choosing him.

It didn't matter that he had once been in love with her.

All of these feelings would never reach Raynare as she had every intention of toying with his feelings from the very beginning. All of her smiles and cute gestures that was definitely faked in order to see him act stupidly in front of her was for her own amusement. She was definitely laughing in the cruelest ways in her heart at his foolishness.

Ise had already come to terms with these facts when he cried his eyes out after consulting with Shirou on how to deal with the knowledge that his most precious feelings were being toyed with and was discarded by the very woman he had fallen in love with like they didn't even matter. Shirou, who seemed to have decided to treat the subject seriously, only watched Ise in silence as he let all out of his pent up despair.

_"Are you going to close your heart to everyone around you or stand up and move forward. To never give up searching for the person who would return your feelings?"_

This was the question that Shirou had asked him after Ise had finished crying his heart out.

For the first time in his life, Ise had used all the capabilities of his brain, that until now was only used to think about perverted stuff, to find an answer to that question. It took him a while but he finally resolved himself to never lose to these feelings of despair. He would create a harem consisting of those who would sincerely return his feelings and for that, he would search for eternity if he has to.

He will never allow Raynare's deeds to cause him despair. To do so would be an insult to Shirou who had died for him. Thus, all the lingering feelings that he had for Raynare had vanished. There was no longer any hesitation in his heart for when he would confront her, so he never bothered to try thinking of a way to get his feelings across to her.

And now that he was finally confronting her, to him, there was only one thing in his eyes as Raynare was flying in front of him.

An enemy.

He no longer viewed her as his ex-girlfriend or his first love but an enemy that he has to defeat. This was not only for revenge for killing his friend or toying with his heart but for the sake of another friend that he had made just a few minutes ago.

Asia Argento.

She was a girl who he was immediately smitten with. A girl who's smile didn't have any ulterior motive or ill intentions unlike Raynare's that, once he compared them, he couldn't believe that he had once been fooled by those fake smiles that Raynare had. He would do anything, for Asia to be able to keep smiling that beautiful smile of hers.

"Take this!"

Raynare threw her spear of light at Ise's head.

At this, Ise coated his Boosted Gear with his Demonic Energy and punched the spear of light to the side while at the same time he flew straight at Raynare with his current maximum speed.

Seeing this, Raynare formed another spear of light and made a slash at Ise, intending to use the same strategy as before to keep him at a distance but instead of evading it like before, Ise had instead blocked the slash with his gauntlet that was still coated with his Demonic Energy.

"Wha-?"

Before Raynare could even be surprised with Ise's stunt, he punched Raynare straight in the face using all his might and the momentum from his flight.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

Raynare was punched tens of meters away before she crashed into three trees in a forest at the back of the church. Her body was battered, her spine and neck was broken, her limbs were bent in unnatural ways and one of her wings were useless. She fell unconscious from the pain of her broken body.

She had clearly lost but Ise didn't want to take any chances.

"Dragon Shot!"

Ise had pumped all his Demonic Energy into his current strongest attack. As the ball of concentrated Demonic Energy hit the place Raynare's body was collapsed at, a strong explosion occurred.

BOOM!

As the smoke from the explosion subsided, Ise could see a 5 meter crater had formed. Everything that was caught in the blast turned to dust including Raynare's body.

**Reset!**

"Huff...huff...I did it...huff...huff."

"Yes, you did."

Ise spun around at the voice only to see Archer. There wasn't even a scratch on him.

"Did you...huff...beat him?"

"Yeah."

During Ise's clash with Raynare, Archer had beaten Dohnaseek by Reinforcing Kanshou and Bakuya to its limits until they formed into two wing like swords known as their Overedge Form. In this state, the swords become brittle and could easily explode to cause hundreds of slashes to the enemy from their fragments.

The hundreds of fragments from the explosion didn't mange to kill Dohnaseek even though it gave him some very serious injuries since Archer only meant it to be a distraction. Archer used this opening to Project his bow and one of Kiba's Wind element Demonic Swords that he had specifically commissioned for Kiba to make for him.

Wind Piercer.

It had a similar design to Caladbolg II's drill like form since Archer needed it to have as much penetrating power as possible and with it's Wind element to increase it's speed, it was able to easily travel at the speed of Mach 10 to completely tear through Dohnaseek's heart and almost everything on his left chest.

"Come on. The others should've realized that something was happening here since we were quite...loud. They should be here any moment now."

"Ugh. We're gonna get scolded aren't we?"

Once they were on the ground, Asia used her Twilight Healing on both of them to heal their injuries even if they weren't much. A few moments later, the other members of the club appeared from a Magic Circle just like Archer said.

"What's going on here?" Rias was the one who interrogated Ise and Archer with a more serious expression than the one she usually has.

"Do you want the long version or the short version?"

"Give me the short version."

"We killed the Fallen Angel that tried to kill Ise."

Rias waited for a few moments for more details but figured that there probably wasn't anymore.

She sighed.

"All right. Give me the long version."

And so, Archer explained to Rias everything that had happened after he left the club room.

Rias sighed again after Archer had finished his tale.

"I expected this from Ise but why did you also have to get yourself in this situation?"

"In my defense, I was only intending to do some light reconnaissance since I thought that there might be Fallen Angels and Stray Exorcists in the church so I wanted to report to you later but they attacked first."

"I see. The problem now is what to do with Miss Argento."

"Eh? Buchou, what do you mean?"

"She's part of the enemy's forces. She can't stay here."

"B-But, those guys wanted to kill her. And I think they were talking about extracting the Sacred Gear from her."

"It doesn't matter. We are a Devils. And she is a servant of Fallen Angels. Our two races cannot coexist. Saving her means making the Fallen Angels your enemies. ...If that happened, we would also have to fight. Something like that could very well trigger another war."

Ise looked at Asia with a conflicted expression. He wanted to keep Asia from the Fallen Angels but doing so might cause a war to erupt between the two factions.

As Asia was hearing the proceedings between Ise and Rias, she smiled at Ise. "It's okay, Ise-san. I don't want to cause you more trouble, so I'll just go back to where I was originally appointed."

Hearing Asia say this, Ise started to have a serious expression on his face. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes."

"Then," Ise put his hands on Asia's shoulders. "why are you crying?"

"Eh?"

Just like Ise said, tears were falling from Asia's eyes.

"T-That's funny. I-I'm not sad but," Asia's tears start to overflow like a dam releasing all of it's burdens. "why won't they stop?"

Ise hugged Asia to his chest. "You're really bad at lying, Asia."

At this, Asia started to earnestly cry on Ise's chest.

"What do you really want Asia?" Ise asked.

"I *sob* want to keep being *sob* friends with Ise-san." It was such a cruel thing to her. Her life long wish to have a friend was finally granted only to have her friend pried away from her as soon as they met.

Seeing Asia crying on Ise's chest, everyone of the club members excluding Archer looked at Rias with a pleading gaze.

"W-What? What do you want me to do?"

No one spoke, they just kept sending their pleading gaze to Rias.

At the club member's continuous gaze, Rias finally gave in.

She sighed. "Fine. I'll ask onii-sama if there's anything he can do."

"Thank you, Buchou."

"Don't thank me yet. We still don't know if she can stay."

"Even so. Thank you."

Asia couldn't let this continue without expressing her own gratitude so she joined in as well. "Thank you very much, Buch-"

Before she finished her sentence however, she suddenly pushed Ise away.

"A-Asi-?"

BANG!

The sound of a gunshot rang throughout the whole clearing in front of the church. All the club members immediately went on guard but it was too late.

The shot had already claimed its prey.

"AASIAAAA!"

Asia had been shot. The bullet had went straight through her the chest.

"*Cough* *Cough*I...se...san*Cough*...I-"

Whatever Asia wanted to say while coughing up blood, she wasn't even able to finish it as life left her body. She didn't even have enough time to concentrate on her Sacred Gear to heal herself.

"No...no...this can't be happening..."

As blood dripped down from Asia's lifeless body, Ise screamed out his despair.

"UWAAAAHHHH!"

Ise's cry was so full of despair that everyone there could feel his sadness.

At least, everyone except the shooter.

"Tch! I missed. Oh, well. At least, I got the traitor. Hehehehe."

A foreign teenage boy with white hair was standing on the roof of the church. He wore a priest outfit and had a very maniacal evil smile on his face.

"Who are you?" Kiba asked in a menacing tone while holding his Holy Eraser in a ready stance.

"I'm a priest~ A boy priest~ I cut down devil-like people~, and I laugh at them~I cut the head of you Devils, and receive my meal~"

The priest starts to sing.

"My name is Freed Zelzan. I belong to the group that you just decimated but enough about that. Ah, just because I introduced myself doesn't mean you have to. I don't want to remember your name in my memory, so please don't. I just went out for an errand and come back to see the place trashed by a couple of shitty Devils! And then there was some tear jerking scene that made me wanna puke. So I thought, "Why not I just kill one of them?" Instead I ended up killing the traitor. Eh, whatever. I rea~lly want to kill all of you right now but since I'm outnumbered I'll have to retreat."

Saying this, Freed pulls out a round object from his coat.

Archer didn't even wait for Freed to activate the round object. Even without analyzing it, he could guess that Freed was planning to use something to help him escape so he Projected 5 of his swords as fast as he could and launched them the moment Freed reached into his coat.

Unfortunately, since Archer had to fire his swords in short notice, he didn't have enough time to concentrate on firing them and was only able to do it at a fraction of their highest speed which was even slower than his previous bombardment.

Also, Freed seems to have better instincts and was more agile than the previous Stray Exorcists as he quickly moved to get out of the way of the swords trajectory the moment Archer Projected them. Thus, Freed was already out of the way by the time Archer's launched swords had hit the place Freed was standing at a moment ago.

"Hyahyahya! You missed!" Before anyone else could react, Freed activated the item in his hand by throwing it at the ground in front of the group. A sudden mixture of bright light and noise invaded their senses as apparently the round object was a strong flashbang grenade. As the light and noise disappeared, no sign of Freed could be seen.

"Damn. He got away." Archer was angry at himself for letting his guard down, thinking that all the enemies were already defeated. His momentary lapse in attention at the drama between Asia and Ise had cost them greatly.

Asia was dead.

Everyone watched as Ise continued to cry while hugging Asia's body. All of them had a mixture of anger and sadness on their facial expression. Even Koneko who was usually expressionless had tears flowing down her eyes. Akeno was especially murderous.

As the scene went on, Rias finally made her decision and pulled out a red Bishop piece from her skirt.

She knew what she had to do.


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fate Stay Night or High School DxD. They belong to Kinoko Nasu and Ichiei Ishibumi respectively. If I did, I would have already created an Ilya route in the VN with a fully-grown and matured Ilya as the heroine and make a badass protagonist for High School DxD instead of a pervert like Issei.**

**- Story Start -**

"Ouch."

It was after school and like usual every member of the Occult Research Club gathered in the club room in the old school building.

At this moment, Ise, who had bruises all over his body, was being treated by Asia.

"Stop whining. You're a man aren't you?" Archer said while pouring everyone in the club room some tea.

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one who got hit by a bokken that's as strong as metal for a whole hour." Ise grumbled at Archer.

"Then you should quickly learn how to block, parry or evade my strikes." Archer countered without even showing any signs of remorse at having mercilessly beaten up Ise for the better part of an hour.

"Damn it! If only I could find a way for my punches to hit him! I was sure I could hit him most of the time but somehow it always misses! How does he keep doing that?...Mmm~ this is good." Ise was mumbling to himself while enjoying the dango that Archer brought for the club.

Ignoring Ise's constant complaining, Archer decides to ask how Asia was doing. "By the way, Asia. I heard you finally moved in with Ise this morning. Were you able to get all your luggage?"

"Yes. I didn't have a lot luggage anyway so I've already moved everything into Ise-san's home." Asia smiled happily.

"Were there any problems with Ise's parents?"

"No, Ise's parents were quite happy to have me. I feel so loved. Thank you, God. Ouch!" Like this, Asia reverted to her sister persona and prayed to God while completely forgetting that she was Devil and received damage.

Archer could only chuckle a little at Asia's antics.

About a month ago, Asia was killed by a priest named Freed Zelzan when she tried to save Ise from the priest's bullet. Afterwards, Rias had revived Asia using one of her Bishop piece which turned Asia into a Devil as part of Rias's peerage.

There were some concerns whether Asia would be able to accept that she was revived as a Devil since she obviously had a strong faith on her religion but Asia's declaration that her friendship with Ise was something more precious to her than her faith had put everyone else at ease.

After that, she was registered into Kuoh and was placed in the same class as Archer and Ise.

For the past month, Ise has been helping Asia integrate into the Japanese society. Archer also helped from time to time but he mostly left the two alone as he deemed that his presence was just a nuisance to the two of them.

Archer could easily tell that both Ise and Asia were already in love with each other if their happy expressions just from seeing each other was any indication. He considered this a good thing since Ise's perverted tendencies seem to calm down a little whenever Asia was in the vicinity.

Perhaps if he could just push the two into an honest relationship than maybe he wouldn't have to worry about Ise's libido becoming the source of the word's downfall anymore.

"Fufufu. Ise has become more manly ever since Shirou took up his training. Work hard, Ise." Akeno who had finished her own portion of the dangos encouraged Ise.

"Yes, Akeno-san! I'll definitely become stronger for the sake of becoming a Harem King!" Ise declared enthusiastically.

...Never mind.

Archer sighed as his small hope of preventing a world disaster was dashed. It was then that he noticed that one of the club room's occupants was acting strangely.

It wasn't Akeno as she was teasing Archer again by pressing her boobs to his arm.

It wasn't Ise as he was being his perverted self as usual, staring jealously at Archer's arm that was between Akeno's boobs.

It wasn't Asia as she was happily enjoying the dangos and didn't notice Ise's behavior.

It wasn't Kiba as he was quietly enjoying the dangos while sitting on one of the sofas like a gentleman.

It also wasn't Koneko as she was eating dangos who's portion was 3 times more than the others (Archer always gave a larger portion to her after learning of her appetite) with a speed that can match Saber's.

The person who was acting strangely was Rias. She had a dazed look on her face while staring into space. She wasn't even eating her dangos.

"_Master, _is there something bothering you?"

...

No reaction.

Rias only kept staring into space. She sighed a few moments later but she never showed any indication that she heard Archer.

_Hmm, this might be serious. _Archer started speculating on what could trouble Rias so much that she starts to ignore her surroundings.

Akeno had also realized Rias's strange behavior and started to get worried about her best friend as well.

"Buchou, are you alright?"

At the lack of response from her question, Akeno approached Rias and raised her voice a little.

"Rias!"

This time, Rias seemed to have heard Akeno as she came back to her senses.

"W-What?" Rias who was a bit confused at the situation could only ask that one simple question.

"I asked if you were alright?" Akeno asked worriedly.

"I-I'm fine. I was just thinking about something." Rias replied hastily.

Akeno watched Rias worriedly until she seemed to have figured out something. "It's about _that _isn't it?"

Rias sighed before replying to Akeno in a resigned tone.

"Yes."

"...I see." Akeno sighed as well. She had a very troubled expression which was quite rare for her.

After a few moment of silence, Archer decided to interject before this depressed atmosphere starts to affect everyone in the room.

"Care to share with the world what the two of you are talking about?" Archer asked sarcastically.

"I-It's...well...umm..." Rias started to mumble.

Archer easily noticed that Rias was hesitant to speak about the issue for some reason. Since he was also keeping some secrets from them, he decided to just let the matter drop since he has no desire to be a hypocrite at this moment.

Archer sighed before saying his piece.

"If you don't want to talk about it to us _Master_, it's fine. Since Akeno seem to already know about it, it means you've already talked about it to those you trust. You can tell us what it's about when you're ready."

"That's right, Buchou. We're all here for you if you need us. Right guys?" Ise said encouragingly while holding up his fist right in front of him.

Everyone just confidently nodded at Ise's words.

"It's just as Ise said, Buchou. We're all here for you." Kiba said while smiling reassuringly at Rias.

"...I want to help." Koneko said in her usual soft voice.

"If there's anything I can do, please tell me. I'll do what I can for Buchou-san." Asia said with serious expression that looks very cute.

"Ufufu. Everyone cares about you, Buchou." Akeno said with her usual smile.

"...Thank you, everyone." Rias said to everyone with a mixture of gratitude and sadness in her expression and voice.

She sighed a little. "Making everyone worried about me when I'm supposed to be the one who leads everyone. Looks like I'm still inexperienced as a King."

A moment later, Rias's usual confident expression returned as she seemed to have made up her mind about something.

"Akeno, can you please stay after this? There's something that I need to settle and I need you to be there as my Queen."

"Of course, Buchou." Akeno said while she gracefully bowed to Rias.

Satisfied at Akeno's reply, Rias continued to address everyone else in the room. "Everyone, there's a certain business that I need to attend to so today's club activity will have to be cut short. Since this will take a while, I will give everyone a time off for tonight as well. Dismissed."

Seeing their leader's confidence returning, no one had anymore doubts as they left the club room.

Among everyone who left however, the only one who chuckled at Rias getting back on her feet was Archer.

_She's still green and there's a lot of places where she needs to improve but for someone her age in this era, she's doing just fine. Now, let's see if I can use the mansion's training grounds for my own training session this time. _

**- Scene Break -**

_Phew. I'm out of practice. Looks like I need to focus on my own training as well instead of just Ise's.  
_

By the time Archer had ended his training, it was already night time.

Archer had went through the obstacle course that he had originally set up for Ise himself to see if he could handle the traps that he had spread out on the mountain. Even though he already knew where all the traps were located, he had intentionally sprung all of them to see if he could escape all of them unharmed.

Naturally, he was able to do so but he had expanded more energy than what he had originally estimated. The him before this would've been able to get past those traps with less effort. This was the best proof that he was out of practice.

Once he had cleared the obstacle course, Archer had started to do some basic training to improve his foundation. However, he was so into the training that it was almost midnight by the time he noticed that day light was gone. It didn't help that Devils have better visions and become more energetic at night so it took a while for him to notice that there was actually no light left.

Fortunately, the mansion's Magic Circle can also be used to teleport straight to the dorm so he didn't have any problems getting back even if all the public transport was unavailable. The problem however, was that the moment he entered his room,

SSSHHHH

the sound of the shower running meant that someone was taking a bath in his bathroom.

_It's probably Akeno, if the smell of ozone mixed with Holy and Demonic aura is any indication. Looks like whatever business she and Rias was tending to, it had went on quite a while._

Judging that Akeno might be slightly hungry if she had to skip dinner, Archer decided to make a light midnight snack for the both of them. He himself was quite hungry and famished due to becoming too absorbed in his training.

Deciding that some tuna sandwich and salad would be appropriate, Archer started his preparations.

It was about 10 minutes after he started making the sandwich that Archer heard Akeno coming out of the bathroom from behind him (the miniature kitchen was directly in front of the bathroom). He was already finished with the sandwich and was just preparing the salad when he turned around and saw Akeno's naked self coming out of the door.

She only had a towel that was currently being used to dry her hair so Archer had a completely clear view of her voluptuous and highly seductive figure. The moist from the shower made her already smooth and silky skin to have a sort of lustrous effect that made her more lovely. If someone like Ise ever saw Akeno as she was at that moment, they would either die of blood loss or immediately ejaculate at the scene or both.

"Ara. You're finally home, Shirou." Akeno greeted Archer innocently.

Archer however, already knew that Akeno was trying to tease him so instead of blushing or being embarrassed, he decided to just speak out what was currently in his mind. "You're beautiful, Akeno."

The effect that Archer intended was immediate.

Akeno suddenly blushed. Her face was as red as a tomato and Archer could swore that steam was coming out of her head. She was also smiling happily while putting both her hands on her cheeks.

After a month of Akeno's constant effort in trying to either seduce or tease him, Archer found out that despite Akeno's perverted nature, she was still a teenage girl at heart. Archer felt a little guilty at teasing her in this way but it was something that came straight from his heart so it's not like he was lying.

Seeing Akeno act like any normal teenage girl, Archer could only chuckle a little.

Akeno's blush turned into a pout at his chuckle. "Mou. You were just teasing me weren't you?"

"Not at all. I was telling the truth." Archer gave a Akeno one of his innocent smiles.

"Besides, weren't you trying to tease me yourself just a moment ago when you came out of the shower while completely naked?"

Akeno just sighed at Archer's counter argument. "It used to be so easy to tease you when we were kids."

"That's what happens when we get older. We mature." Archer said solemnly while making the finishing touches to the salad.

"Are you trying to say I'm not mature for falling for your teasing?" Akeno into a tone of mock annoyance.

Bringing the salad that he had finished preparing to the dining table that already had the tuna sandwich he made earlier, Archer took a seat on one of the two chairs that surrounded the small round dining table. "You're matured enough already. I could even easily picture you being a mother holding her baby."

Instead of taking a seat opposite him, Akeno had opted to sit on Archer's lap instead. Putting her slender arms around his neck, Akeno pulled herself closer to Archer. She looked at him with lust filled eyes. "Is that a marriage proposal?"

Archer didn't even have any time to think of a retort as Akeno kissed him.

It was slow at first.

She started by kissing him on the lips but it got more intense as the seconds rolled by. Akeno moaned in pleasure as she stuck her tongue in Archer's mouth to play with his tongue and Archer responded in kind. Putting his hands behind Akeno's back, Archer pulled her soft and supple body close to him.

Archer might not want to admit it but he was starting to enjoy having a warm beautiful woman in his arms even if he was conflicted whether he was being a pedophile or not considering their mental age gap. His raging teenage hormones weren't making things easier either.

Their kiss continued for about a minute before they separated. A long thin thread of saliva was visibly connecting their lips.

Archer could see that Akeno was really satisfied with the kiss as her lust filled expression from just a moment ago was replaced with a face that had a calmer expression. Another thing that Archer noticed in the month after he reunited with Akeno, was that her sexual desire seem to be gradually calming down and become less intense and infrequent after every sensual night they had together.

She would still desire some 'skinship' almost every night but their sensual nights together has become more... controlled. Akeno seems to be getting better at keeping herself from completely giving in to her lust for him.

Archer had at first thought that Akeno was starting to lose interest in him but after talking to her about their lives after their separation he had found another reason for it. It seems that when Shirou had come for her 8 years ago, Akeno had already started to harbor strong feelings for him.

It had gone to the point that she would fantasize about him to relieve her of her sexual frustrations once she had reached puberty but it didn't seem to be enough. This resulted in her becoming more perverted and her complete awakening as a Super S. In other words, she had accumulated a lot of pent up sexual frustrations throughout the years.

Akeno's sexual desire was probably because of her Fallen Angel heritage as there were records that described female Fallen Angels as insatiable seductresses. At least, if Archer recalled correctly from the various myths and superstitions in his world.

When Archer and Akeno reunited again, Akeno was able to let out and indulge in all of her accumulated sexual desire. Basically, once Akeno was able to let out all of her pent up desires, it became easier for her control her lust as it went down to manageable levels.

Archer was relieved that his previous estimate on how long he could last until he finally gave in and took Akeno's virginity (he confirmed it with Akeno that, yes, she was still a virgin) was actually more far off in the future.

With that problem solved for the time being, he should _really _start to seriously planning on how he could become a hero. Fortunately, his status as a Devil means that his lifespan would be in terms of centuries so he didn't really need to rush.

He will have to first become a High-Class Devil if he wanted more freedom of movement so that would be one of his aims for now. In the meantime, he'll serve Rias as her Pawn since he at least owed her that much for saving him and become stronger.

Who knows what kind of monsters that exist in this world. It would be best to be fully prepared for them before departing on his quest.

In that sense, serving a High-Class Devil was one of the best ways to learn the ins and outs of the Devil community which was essential when one was aiming to become a High-Class Devil.

It was also quite fortunate that Devils have a body that can be developed faster than an average human. Which means that he can become much stronger in a shorter time frame compared to when he was human.

Ending his short rumination, Archer addressed Akeno's naked state. "Why don't you put on some clothing first and we can have some light midnight snack. I thought you might be a bit hungry if you had to skip dinner because of your business with Rias."

"How thoughtful. You were right, I did have to skip dinner. Do you mind if I borrowed one of your shirts?"

"Go ahead, but didn't you already bring some of your clothes here since you come here so often?"

Akeno just gave him a teasing grin that says she was scheming something before heading to the bedroom.

_She's probably planning something perverted again._

True to his predictions, Akeno came back to the miniature kitchen wearing one of his old shirts that he had long grew out of.

The effect of this was that he could clearly see her cleavage as the buttons around her boobs could not be buttoned because of her cup size and the shirt hugged very closely to her perfect body, leaving nothing to the imaginations of those who saw her.

Also, she wasn't wearing anything else besides the shirt so the form of her nipples could also be seen protruding on the shirt.

Basically, she looked very sexy.

_Why is it always that when it comes to these things that I become the prey while the female becomes the predator?_

Archer didn't voice out his thoughts as he offered Akeno some of the tuna sandwiches. They ate in silence, enjoying the taste of the sandwich or in Akeno's case, she was enjoying the way Archer's eyes seem to always unconsciously get drawn to her cleavage while eating.

Damn teenage hormones.

"Aren't you going to ask?"

The question came out of nowhere but Archer could easily deduce what Akeno was talking about. She was most likely curious why he hadn't asked her anything about what she and Rias was doing the whole day.

"No." He answered honestly.

"...Aren't you curious?"

"Yes, I am."

"Then... Why?"

"Because the two of you trusted me enough not to pry in my own secrets, so I'm just returning the courtesy."

Akeno smiled softly at him. "I see. Well, everyone should find out about it tomorrow anyway, so I guess there's no need to rush."

Archer lifted one of his eyebrows at that. "Anything I should expect?"

"Hmm... I think you should prepare more desserts for tomorrow. Enough for more than 20 people."

"Will do." At this, Archer started brainstorming on what might be suitable for tomorrow's menu. It looks like he was going to have to pull out all the stops.

After they finished eating, the both of them quickly went to bed with Akeno snuggling comfortably in his arms. Sleep came easily as both of them were already quite spent and their warm bodies pressing against each other was a welcoming presence.

**xxx Scene Break xxx**

_This is just silly._

It was the next day and just like Akeno said, there were many guests that day when he entered the clubroom. Said guests who were all women except one however, were now being pinned by a few dozen black rapiers to their shadows and unable to move even a finger. The only ones who were spared were the club members, and two other guests.

The black rapiers were known as Dark Keys.

They were the result of Archer and Kiba experimenting with Sword Birth's ability to produce Conceptual Weapons instead of just the elemental swords that Kiba kept producing. It took a lot of coaching on Archer's part but Kiba was able to finally produce swords that had concepts imbedded in them instead of an element.

Though, according to Kiba, it would be almost impossible for him to be able to produce a Conceptual Weapon due to the difficulty in imagining something abstract like a concept. The only reason he succeeded was because of Archer's help and even then, it was because Archer had an almost complete understanding of the Black Keys.

Black keys were Conceptual Weapons that people from the Burial Agency in Archer's world used against Dead Apostles, though the only one who knew about this was Archer and of course Kiba was kept in the dark about the existence of Black Keys. The Dark Keys was created based on the Black Keys, hence, their similar names.

Still, despite the difficulty in producing them, this was a breakthrough in uncovering more of Sword Birth's ability, so Kiba was quite elated and continued training to produce other kinds of Conceptual Weapons. Unfortunately, he kept failing repeatedly if Archer didn't help coach him to produce the swords and even then, the success rate was low.

One of the guests that didn't have their shadow pinned by Dark Keys was a silver haired, beautiful and busty maid by the name of Grayfia. Apparently, she was both the Queen and wife of one of the 4 Maous that were ruling the underworld, Sirzechs Lucifer. She was here on behalf of her King and husband to act as a mediator between Rias and one of the guests since Rias was actually the younger sister of Sirzechs. Grayfia was watching the incapacitated girls with calm curiosity.

The other guest who was spared was currently watching the current scene with utter disbelief. His name was Raiser Phoenix. A pure-blood High-Class Devil, and the third son of the House of Phoenix, one of the 72 Devil clans that survived the war between the 3 factions of Devil, Angel and Fallen Angel.

"It can't be! My whole peerage!? Even Ravel and Yubelluna got caught! Who? How?" Raiser said eyes wide in disbelief.

"I can't move! What's going on?"

"Raiser-sama! Help!"

"Onii-sama! I can't even lift my finger!"

"Th-This can't be! I can't breakthrough this... whatever it is, even with my power as a Queen!"

That's right.

The people who were being pinned by the Dark Keys at that moment were the entirety of Raiser's peerage. The reason for their incapacitation was quite silly and the cause of their current dilemma was due to one hot-headed and extremely jealous Pawn.

Hyoudou Issei.

This all started a few minutes ago when Ise, Kiba and Asia arrived at the clubroom.

Raiser and his peerage arrived a few minutes before Ise and the others. Rias, Akeno and Koneko were already present in the clubroom by then.

At the time, Archer was busy with the finishing touches with a parfait batch in the kitchen beside the clubroom that was prepared specifically for his use after his talent in the culinary arts were discovered.

He had already sent the desserts that were finished to the clubroom and gave a simple greeting to the guests. Due to time constraints, Archer had asked the school for a day off to prepare for the expected guests.

Thanks to that, he was able to create several desserts that hailed from both Eastern and Western origins like crepes, dorayakis, dangos, cakes and other types of desserts. However, this also meant that he was not present to see what had transpired that caused the initial hostility.

By the time he had entered the clubroom with a trolley of the parfait, Ise was already yelling at Raiser.

"Like hell I'm gonna give Buchou to a two timing yakitori like you!"

"Yakitori!? Y-You Low-Class Devil! Don't get ahead of yourself! That's not the way you talk to a High-Class Devil! Rias, what's going on with your discipline towards your servants!?" Raiser was furious with Ise's provocation.

Rias just looks away and says "Like I care."

"Hey Yakitori-guy! I will just beat the crap out of you with my Boosted Gear!" Saying that, Ise manifests his Boosted Gear on his left hand. "We don't need to have a game! I will just take you all down, right here, right now!"

**Boost!**

Ise seem to be confident with his abilities but in response Raiser just sighs.

"Mira. Do it."

Whoever Mira was however, none of the girls Raiser had brought with him responded to his call. All of them were enjoying the desserts Archer had prepared on a medium sized dining table at the back of the clubroom. Each of them were sampling different foods.

"Mmm~ this is soooo good."

"I think I can die happy now."

"This is incredible. Even our best chefs haven't been able to make something like this!"

"I hate to admit this but this is just... otherworldly."

"This cream is delicious!"

"Must... find... secret... recipe."

Seeing no one had responded to his call, Raiser became annoyed and wanted to raise his voice to make his peerage listen to him but was cut off when Ise charged him.

**Explosion!**

"Oryaaah!"

Finally deciding that he was going to have do this himself, Raiser just lazily caught Ise's punch with the palm of his hand and without missing a beat, he flung Ise to the dining table like Ise weighed so much as paper with the same hand he used to catch Ise's punch.

CRASH!

"Ise-san!" Asia ran to Ise who was not moving.

After Ise landed on the dining table and broke it, all the desserts were flung away and fell to the floor.

Seeing his hard work was destroyed, Archer just sighed. This wasn't the first time something like this happened to him so he was already used to it. And since he was already used to it, he also knew what was going to happen next, so he made the necessary preparations.

""""""NOOOOO!""""""

Just like Archer expected, all the girls who were enjoying his desserts cried in despair at being denied of their desires. They immediately fixed their attention on Ise who passed out after crashing on the table. They were all projecting a strong killing intent.

"I WASN'T EVEN ABLE TO TASTE THE DANGOS YET!"

"I WAS JUST GOING TO GET A SECOND HELPING OF THE CREAM PUFF!"

"THE CREPE! NOOO!"

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! DIE!"

All of the girls were ready to tear at Ise's throat but before they could take a single step forward, they all noticed that something was wrong.

None of them could move.

During their tirade, Archer had silently Projected a few dozen Dark Keys and pinned all of them on the girls shadows. As a result, all of them were now completely incapacitated without even receiving even a single scratch.

And all this was what had lead to the current situation.

Almost everyone in the whole room was dumbfounded at the scene except Grayfia and Kiba (who already knew what the Dark Keys were). Not even a hint of surprise was visible on the maid's calm expression, only mild curiosity while Kiba gave Archer a small nod of acknowledgement.

"Before this becomes a bloodbath, can someone tell me what's going on?" Archer said in an annoyed tone.

Everyone except the incapacitated girls turned their heads at him. It seems that they had only now realized his entrance.

"Shirou? Did you do this?" Rias asked him. Shock was prevalent on her features. Not surprising since only Archer and Kiba knew of the breakthrough with Sword Birth.

"Yes."

"...*Sigh* I see. I guess I should've known when those swords came out of nowhere." Rias said in understanding.

All the club members except Kiba and Ise (who was obviously still unconscious) also seem to have came out of their initial shock after finding out what had happened.

Raiser however, became livid. "You! You did this?"

Archer just looked at him with an annoyed expression. "Really? I just said it was me and you ask me the same question? Again?"

"You bastard!" Archer's reply that was void of any respect only made Raiser more furious and he started to form a fireball in his hands.

However, before Raiser could do anything else, Grayfia stepped in. "That's enough. I won't stay quiet if this continues anymore. For Sirzechs-sama's honor, I won't hold back."

Grayfia's announcement seemed to immediately douse Raiser's anger as he snuffed out his flames. "Very well. But I demand he release my peerage."

Grayfia calmly looked at Archer before stating her order that sounded like a request while bowing to Archer a little. "Emiya Shirou-sama. Please release the girls."

"I don't mind, as long as all of them have calmed down."

"That won't be a problem, I assure you. I will take responsibility and deal with them if they continue with their hostilities." Grayfia said calmly with a strict tone that says that she was willing to go through with her statement.

At this, Archer dispersed all the Dark Keys back into Prana and released all the girls. At first, all of them seemed to look like they still want to continue venting their anger at Ise but a look from Grayfia stopped them cold and they chose to only look forlornly at the food that was wasted due to the previous squabble.

Seeing their sad expressions, Archer decided to cheer them up a little by pulling their attention to the parfaits on the trolley. "Do you girls want these parfaits or not?"

At the mention of parfaits, all the girls immediately turned their heads to him. It seemed that they never realized the trolley in front of Archer that was filled with parfaits.

""""""YES!"""""" They all answered as one as all of them rushed to him and took one parfait each and started eating them with gusto.

The girls antics seem to affect Raiser as his face was filled with shame. The other club members (except Koneko who looked on with envy, Ise who was still passed out and Asia who was tending to Ise) however only giggled at the scene while Grayfia looked curiously at the parfaits.

"Is it really that good?"

"Why don't you try one and see for yourself?" Archer said while offering Grayfia one of the leftover parfaits.

Grayfia hesitated a little before taking the dessert and took a scoop of the parfait with the spoon that was imbedded in the parfait. She looked like she was examining the scooped parfait before eating it.

The effect was... interesting. Grayfia didn't change her calm expression but she started eating the parfait using the spoon with mechanical movements without stopping.

It looked like she was in a trance.

Grayfia's mechanical movements only stopped when she seemed to have finally snapped out of it after finishing the parfait. She looked at the empty glass in her hands and then at Archer (who was grinning at her) with a small red tint on both her cheeks. She closed her eyes, put the empty glass down back on the trolley and faked a small cough.

"How was it?" Archer asked teasingly.

"...It was very good." Grayfia answered without looking at his face but the small red tints on her cheeks became redder. She was clearly embarrassed at her previous display of un-maid-like behavior. "Did you make them?"

"Yes. Including the desserts that were on that dining table."

Looking at the ruined dining table, Grayfia said in her usual calm tone. "...I see. I think I'm beginning to understand why the girls were so angry before."

"Right? Those crepes were so good. But now they're all ruined." Said a girl with four ponytails and looked like some kind of staff wielding martial artist. She was one of Raiser's girls.

"Don't worry, Mira. Once we win the Rating Game with the Gremory group, we can have this guy make all the desserts we want!" Said a girl in a China dress.

""""""Yeah!"""""" All of them seemed motivated at the prospect of Archer making them desserts.

Archer raised an eyebrow at their declaration. "Confident aren't you? You do realize that I incapacitated all of you at once just a moment ago without even breaking a sweat, right?"

All the girls seemed to have doubts on their faces at this.

"Also," Archer continued, "What's this about the Gremory group participating in the Rating Game? I thought _Master_ hasn't come of age yet."

"Let me explain." Grayfia, who had recovered her composure, said.

For the next few minutes, Grayfia explained to Archer how Rias was engaged to Raiser because of their parent's orders and how Rias was unwilling to marry Raiser. In the end, the two family decided to use a Rating Game as a way to settle the problem.

If Raiser wins, then Rias will have to marry him.

If Rias wins, then the engagement will be canceled.

Archer internally sighed as Grayfia finished her explanation.

_Political marriage, huh? Why, am I not surprised? Raiser already has his own harem so he couldn't be expected to be loyal to his wife. __No wonder Ise was pissed off. It was probably the combination of his jealousy and his feelings for Rias. Though, I don't think Ise has realized his feelings for Rias. The guy's as thick as my younger self in these matters. There's also his feelings for Asia too. This is gonna be troublesome.  
_

"So all this, will determine _Master's_ future husband, huh?"

"That's right. Once onii-sama defeats Rias Gremory and marries her, our two families will join." A girl with blonde twin drill hair that reminds Archer of Luvia said. "_We_ are the immortal Phoenix. There is no way you can defeat our regenerative bodies."

Archer grinned wickedly at the girl. "Immortal, huh? Oh, I can think of a _few_ ways for me to kill someone like that." Noble Phantasms like Gae Bolg, Gae Buidhe and Harpe that disallows regeneration came to the forefront of his mind.

"Y-You're bluffing!" Said the blonde girl. Doubt and fear were beginning to show on her face.

"You'll just have to see don't you?" Archer challenged her.

Taking a few steps back, the girl ran off to Raiser and hid behind Raiser's back. Raiser seemed to have listened in on their conversation as he looked at Archer warily.

"You scared her too much." Grayfia chastised Archer a little.

"Well, she is the enemy." Archer said non-nonchalantly.

"...Is it true?" Grayfia asked.

"What's true?" Archer played dumb.

"That you have ways to kill an immortal like the Phoenix." Grayfia continued with her interrogation, unfazed with Archer's attitude.

"Yes. Though I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet."

"What do you mean?" Grayfia sounded puzzled at Archer's statement.

"He might be an immortal Phoenix but he's still a Devil." Archer said in a low voice while making sure that no one else was eavesdropping on them.

She blinked once. "Ah. So that's it." She said as she finally understood what he was referring to.

"Thank you for your time. I won't keep you from your duties any longer." Grayfia said while bowing a little to him and went off to stand between Raiser and Rias who looked like they were going to start fighting again.

Archer didn't miss the hint of suspicion on Grayfia's expression even though she tried to hide it with her mask of calmness.

_I wasn't able to fully bluff my way through that one even if it's actually true. Though, I guess it's expected for someone like her to partly see through my bluff._

Of course, he had some Noble Phantasm that could potentially _kill_ something that's immortal but it was also true that there are other ways for him to deal with an immortal without resorting to them. In this case, Raiser may be an immortal but since he was also a Devil, that means he also has their weaknesses such as the Holy elemental swords used by the Exorcists, Holy Water or the Cross that symbolizes the church.

They might not be very effective on High-Class Devils by themselves but combined with Ise's Boosted Gear's Transfer ability (which Ise called Gift) that Ise finally managed to learn a week ago, their effectiveness can be increased a thousand fold. Something like that can definitely cripple someone like Raiser. All they have to do was to find a way to safely handle those items and get the timing right to use them on Raiser.

Unfortunately, it's easier said than done. Thanks to his display earlier, the other team will no doubt keep an eye on him in the Rating Game. If only he knew that they were going to fight each other so soon then he might not have used something that would catch their attention like that.

That said, when will the Rating Game be held? Since all the people participating in the Rating Game are already here, Archer decided to just ask them. Not to mention that it might be a good way to distract Raiser and Rias from their squabble.

Walking to where the two High-Class Devils were bickering, Archer addressed Rias. "Sorry for disrupting your discussion, _Master_, but has the date for the Rating Game been set yet?"

Blinking a few times, Rias seemed to realize something. "Oh, that's right. We haven't agreed on a date for the Game yet."

After a few moments of thinking in silence, Rias had made her decision. "Well, since your team is so weak, let's have the Game in 10 days. That should give you enough time to train your girls."

Raise looked like he was going to explode from anger. "Are you joking? My team is obviously stronger than yours! We have more experience with the Rating Game! Why would _we_ need to train? It's your team who needs that 10 days!"

Rias just smirked condescendingly at Raiser. "If you haven't noticed yet, this person is my Pawn, Emiya Shirou. Is your memory so bad that you don't remember how he single-handedly took care of your whole team at once in just a few seconds without much effort?"

"Th-That's because he took them all by surprise! It was an underhanded trick!" Raiser almost yelled at Rias for saying that his team was weak.

Rias just looked at Raiser as if he was so below her that he was not even worth her time. "Oh? Making excuses now are we? How so unlike a High-Class Devil. Isn't that right Akeno?" Rias asked her Queen who was standing right beside her.

"As you say, Buchou." Akeno said while directing a cold smile at Raiser.

"Tch. Fine! We'll have the game in 10 days! I'll definitely make you eat your words, Rias!"

Saying that, Raiser went to collect his peerage who were reluctant to leave without finishing everything on the trolley. After he was able to pry all of them from the desserts on the trolley, all of them disappeared with a light of a Magic Circle.

Before Raiser left however, Archer noticed that Raiser gave him an angry look.

_He definitely holds a grudge against me. I wonder why?_ Archer thought sarcastically. Loudly, he asked Rias, "You really how to make a bluff, _Master_."

"I agree. That was really well done, Buchou." Akeno added.

"What makes you two think I was bluffing?" Rias said innocently.

Archer only raised an eyebrow and kept looking at her with a gaze that clearly said that 'he was not buying it' while Akeno just kept her ever present smile as she joined Archer in gazing at Rias.

Rias gave in seeing that she realized that she wasn't able to fool them. She sighed. "You're right. I was bluffing. We really needed those 10 days to train ourselves and make some kind of plan to defeat Raiser during the Rating Game. They won't fall for your trick again now that they know what to look for."

"Sorry. I revealed my hand too early." Archer said apologetically.

"It's not your fault. Ise might've been gravely injured if you hadn't done what you did." Rias said with a troubled expression.

"She's right, Shirou. This wasn't your fault. Rather, I should've tried to stop Ise-kun from provoking Raiser instead of letting him charge at Raiser. *Sigh* Thanks to that we've lost one of our trump cards to overcome Raiser's immortality." Akeno said while sounding disappointed at herself.

"About that. I do have some idea on how to deal with that guy. But first," Archer gestured to Koneko who was looking sadly at the empty trolley that was devoid of all the desserts that he brought in a while ago, "why don't I bring in some of the leftover desserts in the kitchen I saved for everyone?"

Rias and Akeno just giggled at the scene.

"Yes. I'd like that." Rias said with some of her confidence restored.


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fate Stay Night or High School DxD. They belong to Kinoko Nasu and Ichiei Ishibumi respectively. If I did, I would have already created an Ilya route in the VN with a fully-grown and matured Ilya as the heroine and make a badass protagonist for High School DxD instead of a pervert like Issei.**

**A/N: Sorry for being so late. A combination of IRL matters, my muse kept dying and reviving and playing new games on my PSP have been keeping me from writing this. Hope you enjoy it. And please remember to review. If any of you noticed any kind of error or inconsistencies, please don't hesitate to tell me.**

**- Story Start -**

Rias woke up early as usual.

It was the next day after their unwelcomed invited guests had left.

After that, the tense atmosphere that pervaded the air ever since Raiser and his peerage had arrived seemed to evaporate. It was partly thanks to Shirou's cooking that everyone in her peerage really enjoyed. Even the usually strict Grayfia was unable to resist the temptation of Shirou's cooking and joined them.

However, what really made them lighthearted, was the sight of Raiser having to back off without being able to make any kind of meaningful retort. Just remembering that scene made Rias want to laugh out loud with glee but she resisted from doing so as it was unbefitting of someone like her, thus she had to be content with some small giggles.

The circumstances of his reincarnation as a Devil aside, Rias considered herself fortunate to have Shirou join her peerage.

At first, she only revived Shirou because she couldn't bear to see Akeno, who was her best friend, in such a despairing condition. Rias could still clearly recall Akeno's crying face as she clutched Shirou's cold dead body tightly in her embrace. It was such a sad scene that Rias herself felt the pain emanating from Akeno as if she was the one who had lost someone important to her instead of Akeno.

Afterwards, although she didn't regret that she had used up one of her Pawn pieces like that, Rias was quite worried that her choice would negatively affect her peerage. She was after all, responsible for the well being of every one of her cute servants and her choice to revive Shirou as her servant was a very critical decision that will affect all of them.

Turns out however, she needn't have bothered worrying about it.

Ever since his joining, Shirou has shown to be very capable in various aspects.

Swordsmanship.

Archery.

Cooking.

Leadership.

And various other qualities that Rias couldn't have asked for more from someone who she recruited without much consideration. Even Shirou's often sarcastic nature was quite a welcoming quirk of his personality.

Seeing Akeno try and fail many times to tease Shirou was also some of the funniest memories Rias could recall.

Even Yuuto and Koneko seemed to have benefited from Shirou's inclusion to her peerage. This was especially true for Yuuto as Shirou has also begun instructing Yuuto in how to better use and master Sword Birth in addition to the battle experience that Yuuto and Koneko have been accumulating from their sparring with Shirou who was obviously more experienced in matters relating to combat than all of them put together.

From what Rias was able to glean from asking Yuuto about the new swords that Shirou had produced yesterday, it seems that the both of them have begun experimenting on producing Demonic Swords with a conceptual attribute instead of the usual elemental ones.

All in all, Rias was quite satisfied with the capabilities of her Pawn.

What was puzzling her however, was why she was able to easily reincarnate Shirou using only 1 Pawn piece.

With Shirou's competency in various fields combined with his ability to create swords out of thin air, it was a miracle that she only needed one Pawn piece to reincarnate him. Shirou's potential shouldn't be so low as to be valued with only 1 measly Pawn piece by the Evil Piece system.

Perhaps it has something to do with the secret that Shirou was keeping from everyone?

If so, then she will not look into it any further no matter how tempting it was to know what the secret was.

She had promised Shirou that she would not press him into revealing what he was keeping from them and she will honor that promise unless circumstances were dire and their livelihood hangs in the balance. That said, she couldn't imagine what kind of secret that Shirou was keeping that would lead to that kind of situation.

Rias was quite sure that whatever secrets that Shirou had, it was a personal thing instead of something dangerous.

"Well, it's no use thinking about it." Rias said to herself as she looked at a reflection of herself in the mirror. She had already taken a bath during her ruminations and had put on a suitable clothing for a hike up a mountain where her servants training would commence.

Shirou and Akeno were in agreement with her that the mansion she had lent to Shirou for Ise's training was a good place to train her peerage for the upcoming match.

Which brings her to her other Pawn that she was lucky to have recruited.

The possessor of one of the Longinus class Sacred Gears, the Boosted Gear.

The current Sekiryuutei, Hyoudou Issei.

To think that she would be able to recruit a user of such a rare Sacred Gear. Granted, Ise was currently very weak even after _Boosting_ to his current maximum capacity but something like that could easily be remedied through training. With a Devil's constitution and lifespan, Ise could train longer and become stronger to the point that she had no doubt that Ise could become the strongest Pawn in the Devil's history of the Evil Piece system. Sacrificing one of her Mutation Piece and four of her Pawn Pieces to reincarnate Ise was a small investment in the long run.

Ise's perverted antics was also fun to see. It felt like she had gained a cute and idiotic little brother. His cute interactions with her second Bishop, Asia Argento, also gave her a warm feeling inside. Those two lovebirds couldn't have been more obvious about their feelings for each other with how they always seemed so happy whenever they were in each others vicinity.

"Looks like everything's perfect."

After being satisfied that nothing about her was out of place, she quickly produced a Magic Circle to teleport herself directly into Shirou's room. She didn't bother to teleport herself to the Magic Circle that was prepared inside the dorm where Shirou was residing for easy access because she thought it was a hassle.

She was also hoping to catch Shirou off guard in his sleep. It would be quite interesting to see how her Pawn looked when sleeping. She wondered if he would look innocently cute or whether Shirou would look ridiculously funny in the morning with bed hair and such.

It was a mistake that she would never forget.

"Good morn-" Once the glow from the Magic Circle disappeared, she started to greet the owner of the room only to pause in mid sentence once she had a good look of what the room's inhabitant or _inhabitants_ were doing.

There wasn't just _one_ person on the single bed in the room, there were _two_.

Shirou and Akeno.

If it was just them sleeping together, than Rias wouldn't have bat an eyelid but right now the two of them were doing more than that.

Both Shirou and Akeno was completely naked with Akeno sitting in front of Shirou while her back was facing him in an erotic fashion. Shirou's right hand was groping Akeno's right breast and playing with her nipples while his left hand was pleasuring her private part. The both of them were kissing with Akeno's head leaning backwards and her left arm around Shirou's neck while her right hand was stroking Shirou's _huge_ sword. Their eyes were closed so they probably didn't notice the Magic Circle that indicated Rias's arrival.

They did however, realize Rias's incomplete greeting and was now looking at her with flushed faces from ecstasy as Rias felt her blood start to gather to her head. She was sure that her face was now completely red. It was one thing doing such sensual acts herself but another to be witnessing two of her servants and one of which was her best friend doing it in such an erotic manner in the middle of the morning.

Silence was all consuming for a few moments as the two parties stared at each other.

It was Akeno who broke the silence. "Oh my, Rias. Would you like to join us?"

That did it.

Rias spluttered her reason for coming here which was to inform them of their hike up to the mansion as fast as she could and teleported out of the room immediately.

She was never going to teleport directly inside of Shirou's room ever again without prior notice.

******xxx Scene Break xxx**

A few hours after Rias blundered into Archer's and Akeno's private time together, all the members of the Occult Research Club currently found themselves hiking up a mountain.

"Huff... huff..."

Ise was currently going up a relatively steep slope while carrying luggage that belonged to Rias and himself. Ise's bags aside, Rias's bags seemed to be packed with various heavy articles. Most of the essentials were packed in one bag while the two other bags contained dumb bells that were somehow enchanted to be a lot heavier than it was supposed to, though Ise doesn't seem to have realised this yet.

Thanks to that, although they weren't even halfway up the mountain yet, Ise looked like he was going to collapse from sheer exhaustion.

"Hee~... hee~..."

Ise's breathing that sounded like someone who was winded was definite proof that he was almost at his limit.

Ise's current predicament was something that was both a punishment and a necessity.

The punishment was for riling up Raiser during yesterday's fiasco. Not only did he tried to provoke Raiser, he even completely forgot Archer's teachings from their ongoing training sessions. In other words, Ise had recklessly charged at Raiser without even waiting for his Boosted Gear to fully power himself up. The result was that he was about to be mauled by Raiser's whole peerage and as a consequence, Archer was forced to show his hand in order to save him.

Thus, Ise was deemed to require some form of punishment but since Rias didn't want to be thought as a cruel King by her peerage especially since Ise's actions were done for her sake, Archer had suggested for Rias to punish Ise with training as an excuse. Rias readily agreed as it combined both the element of a necessary training exercise and giving an appropriate punishment that wasn't too excessive.

This kind of training was, as usual, meant to increase Ise's stamina which was the very fuel for his Boosted Gear. The higher his base parameter, the easier for him to become stronger with the Boosted Gear. The training also increases the maximum number of times Ise could multiply his powers.

Since Ise's foundation was very low to begin with even after being reincarnated into a Devil, he will have to work hard to become stronger if he wants to achieve his dreams. Not that Archer would allow Ise to have his way with all the beautiful women in the world if he could help it.

Archer had been spending some time with Ise to influence his way of thinking bit by bit. He had already figured out that trying to steer Ise away from his perverted dream for a harem was impossible thus, Archer had decided to make Ise limit himself only to those who he would choose to include in his peerage.

Of course, Archer had also made sure that Ise would only take in those who were willing to be part of his peerage by their own choice while fully understanding what it entails instead of through force. Thankfully, Ise had already decided to only include women who would return his feelings into his peerage when the time comes that he become a High-Class Devil and receive his Evil Pieces, so it wasn't really hard to persuade him in that regard.

Hopefully, once he was through with Ise's brainwashing, he would not have to worry about Ise's perverseness causing the world's overpopulation anymore.

"Hee~... Shirou... hee~... how... hee~... can you... hee~... still... hee~... move? Hee~..." Ise asked while gasping for breath.

"I train a lot more than you." Archer answered Ise without a hint of tiredness in his steps or breathing.

Of course this wasn't true. He was carrying luggage which was two times as heavy as the one Koneko was carrying which was about nine to ten times heavier than what Ise was carrying and Koneko was a Rook that had the strength and defense trait while he was only a Pawn who wasn't allowed to use Promotion. Even though he's currently using Reinforcement to strengthen his body, a hike up a mountain with heavy loads was still a draining activity. It's just that he was able to hide his exhaustion more discreetly.

The heavy loads were something that Rias made Archer carry. Her excuse was that Archer was stronger than Ise so he should carry more but Archer suspected that their encounter that morning was the cause of Rias trying to punish him without being obvious about it.

Rias wasn't obvious about it but seeing Archer hike up the mountain without any obvious signs of suffering or exhaustion despite it being her way of punishing him displeased her a little. She might be smiling at him with her usual confident smile but he could see some small twitches at the corner of her mouth every now and then that clued him in on her charade.

_What a terrible _Master_ I have. _Archer mentally sighed while smiling a little at Rias's antics.

Rias sometimes reminds him of Rin with their confident personae. The thought of Rin made him feel nostalgic as he started to wonder how everyone else in the last Holy Grail War was. Ever since he recovered his memories, Archer had at times reminisce on some of the happier memories he had before he became a Counter Guardian and the various lessons he learned after he became one.

It was something that he felt was out of character for him but he found that he had started to be at peace with his decision to become Counter Guardian as he started to remember the various times he butted heads with his stubborn younger selves in the different versions of the 5th Grail War. These were memories that he only experienced as if he was only reading a book when he was a Counter Guardian but somehow after being reincarnated and recovering his memories, those memories seemed to have also been integrated in his mind as if he was experiencing them himself.

Archer didn't know why this was the case but he didn't really mind as he felt some of his previous belief in his ideals start to burn again. It was necessary that his previous vigor in pursuing his ideals be alighted again if he was intending to become a hero that was worthy of the Throne. It was both his dream and his salvation.

_To that end, I need to become stronger so this kind of training is as necessary to me as much as it is for Ise. _Archer logically concluded.

During the hike, Asia who travelled lightly expressed a desire to help Ise every now and then but was discouraged by everyone who convinced her that it was necessary part of Ise's training. Even Ise said that he would carry on like that until they reached the mansion.

Other than showing his disbelief on how Archer was able to carry more luggage than him without even showing any kind of strain other than sweating, Ise didn't complain about this method of training. Even when he was obviously exhausted beyond his limits, Ise still had a strong determination in his eyes. It seems that he was determined to become stronger no matter what kind of suffering he had to endure.

"I'm... hee~... going to... hee~... become... hee~... a Harem... hee~... King... hee~..."

...It seems that his determination was fueled by perverted motivations.

Archer was amazed that Ise could still think of something like being a Harem King in this kind of situation. He wondered whether Ise's Origin was something that had some connection to perversity which was the source that made Ise into a pervert.

Getting rid of such silly ideas, Archer decided to concentrate instead on the hard trek up the mountain. It was the first time he realized how _far_ up the mountain the mansion was located at. He never actually noticed it since he and Ise usually teleported straight to the mansion before this.

"Buchou, I gathered some herbs. Let's use it for the meal tonight."

Kiba says that while walking past Ise and Archer with a cool expression. He's also carrying a huge piece of luggage on his back albeit it only looked two times bigger than Ise's. Ise was lost for words when he saw Kiba walk up the mountain without any difficulty.

Archer evaluated that Kiba has quite the amount of stamina since he also went to gather some herbs during their way here.

"…See you later."

Then Koneko who was carrying more luggage than Ise walks past them.

"Uoryaaaaaa!" That seemed to be the last straw as Ise gathered up all his remaining strength and tried to hasten his pace in order to keep up with the others.

Seeing someone smaller than him being able to carry heavier loads than him seemed to have triggered some kind of desire that made Ise not want to lose to her. His spirit only lasted for a few moments however, as he didn't even made it more than 10 meters before his pace slowed down again to the same pace he had before. This happened a few more times as they hiked up the mountain.

They continued on like this for a few more hours until they finally reached the mansion at which time Ise finally collapsed on the ground not moving. His pupils were white and his breathing was slow.

"Hmm. Maybe we went a bit overboard." Rias commented as she observed Asia fretting over the unconscious Ise.

"He'll be fine. Watch this." Archer said as he suddenly got an idea on a way to immediately wake Ise up.

Moving close to Ise, Archer said directly into his ear. "Hey, Ise. Rias and Akeno are naked in the hot spring and they started groping each others breasts."

"WHERE!? BUCHOU AND AKENO-SAN GROPING EACH OTHERS BREASTS WHILE NAKED IN THE HOT SPRING! I WANT TO- Ouch!" The response that Archer had expected came immediately as Ise instantly got up from his slumber and started demanding to see where the erotic scene that Archer had described earlier in his ears but before he could finish his ramblings, Archer had lightly smacked his head.

"What was that for? Huh?" Once he was able to form coherent thoughts, Ise finally realised the weird situation he was in. Everyone of the Gremory group had gathered around him. They all had amused expressions on their faces except Archer, Koneko and Asia who had annoyed, disgusted and worried expressions respectively.

"What's going on? What happened?" Ise asked.

"You fell unconscious once we arrived in front of the mansion and wouldn't wake up. Emiya-kun instantly woke you up after he said in your ear that Buchou and Fukubuchou (Vice-Club President) are naked in the hot spring." Kiba answered Ise's query.

"Oh. I see. Ahahaha." Comprehension dawned on Ise once he was able to put the pieces together and tried laughing away his shameful behaviour.

"...You're the worst." Koneko gave Ise the final blow that made Ise hang his head in shame.

"Alright then. Everyone, get inside and put on your tracksuits. We're going to continue the training in 15 minutes so we'll gather here again at the appointed time." Deciding that everything was fine now, Rias ordered everyone to prepare for the _real_ training that they came here for.

"Ugh." Ise looked like he wanted to complain but he held his tongue. Instead, he followed everyone else's example and went to his designated room on the first floor of the mansion which was between Archer's and Kiba's room. Ise arrived at his room just as Kiba and Archer was about to enter their respective rooms.

"Don't peek." Kiba said in a teasing tone to Ise.

"Yeah. I don't swing that way too." Archer said to amuse himself.

"I will seriously beat you two up!" Ise replied heatedly as he entered his room and slammed the door behind him.

15 minutes later, all the club members gathered in front of the mansion as Rias had instructed and their training from hell began.

**xxx Scene Break xxx**

TOK. TOK. TOK.

The sounds of wooden swords hitting each other can be heard throughout the clearing.**  
**

Once everyone was gathered in front of the mansion, Rias had first decided to gauge everyone's current battle potential by having them do a quick spar.

The first pairing was between Ise and Kiba.

With more experience in fighting under his belt, most of the people there had expected Kiba to easily knock out Ise in under a minute however it has been more than 5 minutes and Kiba hasn't even been able to get in one clean hit yet.

Every swing of Kiba's wooden sword was either blocked by Ise's own wooden sword or dodged entirely. That said, Ise's movements were still clumsy and both his blocks and dodges almost always left him open to a follow up attack and made him look pathetic but somehow Ise was still able to keep Kiba from hitting him.

Granted, Kiba was holding back and he hasn't utilized his speed as a Knight just yet but for a complete amateur like Ise to be able to escape from being hit by any of Kiba's strikes was quite an impressive feat.

Even if Ise seemed to be unable to find a single opening to make his own attacks, being able to buy himself time was actually a very important factor for Ise considering his Boosted Gear's ability to multiply his powers every 10 seconds. This was what Archer had been aiming for in the training regimen he had made for Ise.

Archer had concentrated on making Ise sharpen his instincts for danger and trained him to use every possible means that he could think of to escape from being incapacitated. The result of Archer's training method was currently showing itself in this spar as Ise kept himself from being hit by strikes that can give a significant damage.

Archer had thought that his teachings had already sunk inside Ise's mind but his actions yesterday had proven otherwise. Archer had already started planning tougher training regimens so that this time, Ise will take his lessons to heart.

"Alright. That's enough." Rias finally decided to end the spar.

As soon as Rias stopped the spar, Ise immediately dropped down on the ground and gasped for breath while laying on his back. On the other hand, other than a few drops of sweat on his forehead, Kiba didn't even even exhibit any indication of being tired.

"Yuuto, how was he?" Thinking that Kiba had more experience than her in close quarter combat, Rias decided to defer to his judgement on the spar.

"His blocks and dodges were awkward but he was able to keep moving and prevent me from hitting him." Kiba calmly started to explain his opinion.

"His footwork might look a bit bad but I actually had a hard time to find a good opening and even when I did, he was still able to create a lot of distance between us to escape from my offense. Although he got some scratches and bruises from my attacks, none of them was a clean hit. I think he'll need to work on his skills more but for only a month of training, it's not bad." Kiba stated while sounding impressed.

"Also, he was fighting after only a 15 minute break from our hike so his performance was hindered because he's still exhausted. His real ability should be more impressive than this. If this is his ability without using his Boosted Gear, he'll be a monster once he has _Boosted_ to his maximum power." Kiba finally ended his analysis.

"Well, there you have it. Good work, Ise." Rias complimented Ise.

"Huff... Thank you... huff... very much... huff... Buchou." Ise replied between gasps of breath.

"You too, Shirou. Your training method seems to be paying off."

"Of course, _Master_. I made sure to make his life hell, after all." Archer replied smugly.

"You're a... huff... sadist." Ise said while glaring daggers at Archer.

"I'll take that as a compliment as your instructor." Archer said while giving Ise a mocking smile that made Ise wished that he could punch Archer with all his strength.

Unfortunately, Ise knew very well that his _torturer _was much stronger and more skilful than him. Their on going training had impressed upon him how large the gap between them was. He might have a chance if he could Promote to Queen and multiply his powers with his Boosted Gear to his current maximum power but he still doubted that he could beat him. He was still too inexperienced in battle.

This fact was already proven during one of their training sessions when Shirou had made him Boost 12 times (the current maximum number of times he could multiply his powers) while Promoting to Queen and they faced each other like that. Shirou barely used any of his stamina or Demonic Energy in the match. All he did was skilfully dodge or parry all of his attacks until his Boosted Gear had _Resetted_ and his powers returned to its normal state, at which time Shirou had given him a sound beating.

There were many limitations to his powers and Shirou had tried his best to make him realize how fatal those limitations were. It was a lesson that he should've already learned but he was too proud of his Sacred Gear to have heeded them.

Ise regretted for becoming overconfident after defeating two Fallen Angels and letting his victory get to his head. Thanks to that, they had lost the element of surprise as the existence of Kiba's new creation, the Dark Keys, was revealed to the enemy and its abilities were most likely figured out by Raiser and his peerage by now.

He had asked Kiba about the abilities of the Dark Keys during yesterday's feast. Apparently, the Dark Keys can completely bind the person who's shadow was pierced by the sword. Unfortunately, continuous experimenting revealed that it needed more of the sword to completely bind someone the stronger they are.

For example, most of Raiser's peerage needed two to three of the sword in order to completely bind them. Both Raiser's Queen and his sister however, needed 5 of the Dark Keys for the binding effect to completely take hold.

In a situation where the enemy was taken by surprise, the Dark Keys can be used to completely incapacitate an opponent without even inflicting a single scratch on them. Against Raiser who was an immortal with powerful regenerative powers, it was a very useful trump card but now that the enemy was aware of its existence, it would be harder to catch them off guard in order to use it and all of that was completely his fault.

If only he had a better control over his emotions, then their current predicament could be easily solved the moment either Kiba or Shirou would pull out those Dark Keys while Raiser and his peerage was unsuspecting of their motives during the Rating Game. Thanks to him getting riled up however, Shirou had to use the Dark Keys to save him. Again.

How many times did he need to screw up before he was satisfied?

Shirou died protecting him all because he was fooled by a Fallen Angel.

Asia died protecting him from being killed by a Stray Priest.

And now, the person he admired might be forced into a marriage she didn't want with a playboy that clearly only desired her for her beauty and her title because he was too stupid to keep his emotions in check and was saved again at the cost of revealing one of their hands.

Their only chance now was to win the match so that Buchou's engagement will be cancelled and in order for that to happen he will need to become stronger in these 10 days.

He will not screw up again. What kind of a Harem King would he be if he let someone else than him take Buchou's virginity?

_"Buchou's virginity is mine! I won't let anyone else take it!"_ Ise had silently swore this in his heart.

"I already know Shirou's, Yuuto's and Koneko-chan's abilities because I always watch their spars before this so it won't be necessary to pit them against each other again. Now, our next training would be-" Ignorant of Ise's inner desire for her virginity, Rias wanted to declare their next training regimen but,

"About that, _Master_. I would like to make a suggestion on what our next training would be if you don't mind." Archer had cut off Rias before she could finish her sentence.

"Why not? I'll agree if I think it's good enough." Unperturbed from being interrupted, Rias just motioned Archer to continue with his explanation.

Archer's next smile made chills go down the spines of everyone present before he started to elaborate on what he had planned for their training.

******xxx Scene Break xxx**

This was overwhelming.

Emiya had suggested they train in a situation where they were outnumbered and Buchou had easily agreed to the suggestion. After all, their enemy would clearly use their advantage in numbers against them as much they could. It was one of the disadvantages of Buchou not having completed her peerage yet.

In contrast, Raiser's group who had 16 members if you include the King himself as well, outnumber them _almost_ 3 to 1 if you discard Asia who was not a combatant and was delegated a supporting role. Basically, there was a very high chance that any one of them might find themselves fighting against 3 opponents at once. Maybe more, if the other side was able to strategize efficiently and with more experience in the Rating Games under his belt, Raiser may be able to do just that.

The training's set up was simple enough.

They were made to fight by themselves against the rest of the club or as Yuuto himself had decided to call it, the Gremory group.

Yuuto had already guessed that this training session would be tough but he had no idea that it would be this _hard_.

Lightning strikes coming from above, compressed Demonic Energy heading in his direction at the slightest opportunity, strong punches and kicks that can break bones directed at his openings and arrows that travel faster than bullets aimed at his legs. Yuuto was glad that Buchou had reincarnated him as a Knight because its trait that increased his speed was the only thing that kept his body from getting a direct hit from these attacks.

As it was, he was hard pressed to dodge even some of the attacks that were coming his way. Especially the arrows Emiya shot at him that kept brushing past his legs as he did his best to get his legs out of the way of the arrows trajectory every time he noticed that Emiya had nocked one of his arrows. Yuuto had made sure that he kept a close eye on Emiya ever since the training started because he was sure that Emiya's accuracy with his arrows was going to be his downfall if he didn't pay attention to him.

That said, Yuuto had a suspicion that the only reason he was able to escape those arrows at all was because Emiya had let him.

Emiya was a bit of a mystery to Yuuto. The Pawn was well versed in swordsmanship, archery, tactics and strategies and even the various kinds of domestic chores. However, what really made Yuuto wary of him was the way he carried himself.

There were many times that Yuuto had the impression that he was talking to an adult that had endured many hardships and pains in his life when he talked with Emiya. It was a similar feeling as the many times he conversed with his own Master who had taught him to wield a sword and who was already around one and a half century old.

Basically, Yuuto felt that Emiya was far older than what his age suggested.

It was a good thing that the guy was on their side.

Yuuto thought that Buchou's decision to reincarnate Emiya as part of her peerage was the correct move. Emiya's mystery aside, he had no doubt that Emiya was not a kind of person who would betray them without a very good reason. The many times that he had spent with the Faker (that's what Emiya had called himself during one of their training sessions) was enough to know at least that the Pawn had a good heart.

Yuuto felt that they had struck gold to have been able to recruit someone like him with only one Pawn piece.

Not only did Emiya proved himself to be highly capable in battle or domestic matters, he was also a very good teach- no, instructor. Yuuto's mastery of his Sacred Gear has been improving ever since Emiya had started coaching him in the finer arts of sword smithing.

Emiya's attention to detail of the Demonic Swords that Yuuto produced had allowed for the creation of stronger Demonic Swords. All of Yuuto's previous creations have been upgraded considerably thanks to knowing more of how paying attention to the swords basic structure and composition can increase their durability and power.

Not only that, he had also started to be able to produce weapons that were imbued with concepts instead of elemental attributes even if he still sucked at it.

Truly, he would not have even thought of trying to imbue his weapons with something as abstract as concepts in his weapons if Emiya hadn't suggested it. It might take him years to completely master this newly discovered ability but for the sake of his revenge, it was a worthwhile endeavor.

Now, if only he could only find a way to use those abilities to make a single moment of an opening to get out of his current predicament.

Yuuto's various spars with Emiya had taught him how important it was in conserving one's stamina when in a battle of attrition. That said, being peppered with all kinds of attacks from every direction without a chance to even catch his breath was pushing both his stamina and concentration to the utmost limits.

So this was what he will most likely be facing in the Rating Games against Raiser's peerage in 10 days. If they were intending to win, than this kind of training really was necessary in order to keep themselves from being taken out in the beginning of the game.

Fortunately, the objective of the training was for them to last as long as possible until reinforcements arrive or escape and hide from their aggressors instead of trying to defeat their opponents single-handedly, though Emiya also encouraged them to take down any of their enemies as long as it doesn't put themselves at risk. If that's the case, there were a few options that were available for Yuuto to exploit.

Again, he was thankful for his spars with Emiya for making him realize the other uses for his Demonic Swords instead of just a way to directly attack his opponents or defend against their attacks.

"Ey." Koneko let out a sound in that usual monotone voice of hers as she made a downward kick from the air with her left leg that was aimed for his head.

The attacked missed Yuuto by mere millimeters and shattered the ground where he was standing a split second ago as Yuuto jumped as far back as he could to escape the encirclement. The shaking ground as if a small earthquake had occurred seemed to have caught Emiya off guard as his balance was disturbed for a tenth of a second and it made the follow up attack come a bit later than intended.

This small opening was enough for Yuuto to initiate one of the plans he had formed during their briefing of this training.

At the same time Emiya had shot his arrow, Yuuto had already formed a small dagger in his hands and threw it on the ground as he dodged the arrow. The moment the dagger was lodged into the ground, black smoke was released from the dagger and completely obscured the surrounding view of the clearing.

The dagger was something Yuuto had created with Sword Birth about 10 minutes ago so he hadn't enough time to name it or even put much thought in its construction to make it sturdy but that wasn't a problem as it wasn't intended to be used in direct battles in the first place.

Yuuto took this time to hide himself in the forest, away from the eyes of his attackers. Taking refuge on one of the trees and making sure he was completely hidden from view, Yuuto calmed down his erratic breathing and focused on his hearing.

Once the smoke produced by the dagger had dispersed, Yuuto could hear the surprised voices of the rest of the members of the Gremory group as they searched for him using their eyesight. When they failed to find him, a clapping could be heard coming from the air directly above him.

"Well done, Kiba. You were able to get out of that situation quickly enough before you received any significant damage and wasted your stamina but,"

Kiba turned his gaze upward to see that Emiya was aiming one of his arrows at him.

"Checkmate."

******xxx Scene Break xxx**

The training during the day had completely exhausted most of them except Archer, Asia, Akeno and Rias since by the time it was Archer's turn to be bombarded by the group, they had all exhausted their stamina and Demonic Energy while the rest weren't even scheduled to be the training's victims. Thus, Rias had concluded the training for that day seeing as about half of the group can't even move a finger anymore and it was almost time for dinner.

Rias was quite pleased with her peerage's performance as almost all of them had lasted until sunset even with such a brutal training method.

When it was Koneko's turn for her to withstand the group's concentrated attacks, she had performed splendidly. As soon as the training started, Koneko didn't hesitate to change into her Nekomata form so that she could be at her best.

In that form, she was able to have better control of her touki so that both of her agility and flexibility increased to the point that she could keep up with Kiba who was using half his speed in the training. Combined with her high strength and defense as a Rook (which were also strengthened by her touki) and her martial arts, Koneko was able to just shrug off weak attacks while dodging or parrying most of the attacks that could penetrate her defenses and at the same time targeting anyone who let their guard down.

In the end, she lasted more than 15 minutes before she finally succumbed to her injuries and Rias decided that it was enough. She was later healed by Asia and other than having exhausted more than half of her stamina, she was back in shape to participate in the training's next session almost immediately.

Koneko's use of her Nekomata form shocked almost everyone who knew how much Koneko hated that form. It was only after the training had ended that they got an explanation from Archer.

Before the training had started, Archer had already convinced Koneko to use her full potential and not to hold back anything. Archer had discovered Koneko's unwillingness to use her strongest form due to her past during one of their sparring sessions when he asked her why she never used it in their spars.

Archer managed to finally convince Koneko to use her Nekomata form by making her fully realize what was at stake in the upcoming match. Mainly, Rias's freedom and well being.

Rias was both touched by how much Koneko cared for her that she would once again utilize her hated form and angry at Archer for manipulating Koneko in such a way.

In Archer's defense, he had only told Koneko to decide which of the two was more important to her.

Her loathing for her Nekomata form.

Or Rias.

The fact that Koneko had chosen her made Rias hug Koneko while shedding tears of joy and thanking her. She was happy that she meant more to her compared to her anger towards her sister who was the source of Koneko's reluctance to use her Nekomata form.

The touching scene would have continued like that if Koneko hadn't realized Ise's perverted look which was directed at her.

It seemed that Ise also had a monster girl fetish as well on top of his other fetishes. It didn't help that Koneko looked real cute with her cat ears and tails which suited her quite well. Even Archer thought the word 'moe' in his mind the first time he saw Koneko in that form though he hid his true thoughts and didn't say it out loud.

The way Ise was looking at her made Koneko feel really uncomfortable to the point that she tried to poke Ise's eyes out with the classic two-finger-eye-stab.

Ise became the next training session's punching bag after his eyes were healed by Asia.

For someone who didn't have any prior experience in fighting large number of people, Ise did quite well. He was able to keep himself from getting hit by some of the stronger attacks but he generally was at the mercy of most of the sword slashes, magical attacks, punches and kicks that was aimed at his body. He especially kept an eye out for Archer's sword arrows as previous experience had dictated how dangerously accurate Archer could be with his bow.

Despite looking helpless from the onslaught that kept coming his way, Ise was able to keep himself in the game until he 'Boosted' himself five times which was when he finally decided to activate his Boosted Gear's ability. For the next few moments he was able to keep up with Koneko's punches and kicks, enough to even surprise Koneko as he grabbed one of her arms and quickly tried to fling her at Kiba. It seemed that he planned to entangle the two before running into the forest and completing the objective of disengaging from the enemy.

Unfortunately, before he could make her fly at Kiba, Koneko had enough reflex to grab his arm instead and immediately reversed their positions. In the end the one who was flung tens of meters away into a tree was Ise who passed out right there and then.

After that, Rias made everyone other than Asia and Akeno do grueling a physical training until sunset. She especially concentrated her attention on Ise who she considered their trump card against Raiser. Poor Ise was made to tie a heavy rock on his body in addition to Rias herself riding on the rock while climbing a steep mountain path and push ups while said rock and passenger were on his back.

The others were also subjected to the same kind of physical training. They were used to using Demonic Energy to strengthen themselves unlike Ise so it was supposed to be less taxing on their physical bodies but Rias had anticipated this and gave them heavier loads based on their physical limits which made their hell not unlike Ise's.

In the end Archer and Koneko were the only ones left standing at the end of the torture. Ise and Kiba who had less physical strength were down on the ground gasping for breath.

Rias had temporarily dismissed them as dinner time was near though it didn't mean that their training had finished. Far from it.

Their next training was taken up by Akeno almost immediately after.

She was to instruct them on how to use magic.

Unlike Rias's spartan training, Akeno's training was more relaxing. This wasn't because she was a kind instructor. Not at all. The relaxing atmosphere of her training was to ensure that their minds would be calm and collected. This was an essential step on trying to use Demonic Energy to perform magic.

From what Archer could understand from Akeno's lecture, Devil magic was dependent upon the user's imagination, so the user must have a clear picture of what they want to produce. Since Akeno's explanation sounded like how he usually used Projection, Archer decided to just try doing what Akeno instructed him to do while picturing a sword in his mind without activating his Magic Circuits.

The result was that a small dagger like object made of steel-coloured Demonic Energy formed in his hand. The dagger was around the same size and dimension of a kitchen knife but without the details that usually accompanies his Projected weapons. The dagger looked like a small lightsaber made of pure energy from those sci-fi movies compared to the solid blades that were stored in Unlimited Blade Works. Archer decided to experiment further once he had some privacy.

The next person who was able to unleash their Demonic Energy was Asia. She had managed to make a knuckle sized green ball of Demonic Energy form in her hands. Considering that her Twilight Healing emitted the same colour when she uses it, Archer thought that it suited her quite well.

As expected, Ise was the last person who was able to use his Demonic Energy but Archer _really_ wanted to facepalm when Ise finally figured out his own brand of magic. It seemed that Ise was intending to use his magic to strip,

Yes, strip.

Girls who he was able to come in contact with.

Even his magic's discipline was something born from his perverted desires.

Archer was once again stumped with the degree of Ise's perverseness. Perhaps he should sic Koneko on Ise in her full powered Nekomata form so that she could end the boy before his perverted desires extend to innocent women. He was sure that Koneko was also disgusted with Ise's constant perverted actions.

...On second thought, Koneko might be in danger of getting raped because of that pervert's monster girl fetish.

Contemplating further on Ise's perverted magic made Archer realize that Ise's magic could _literally_ destroy an enemy's armor. A useful ability if the opponent was wearing armor with troublesome defense properties like negating certain elements. Not to mention that he also had the ability to copy Ise's magic if he used Structural Analysis in advance to scan his enemy's body structure and unlike Ise who could only use them on females, he could do it on males as well.

Of course, he doesn't have any perverted motives like Ise. Nope, not him.

Once Ise figured out how to use his own magic, Akeno had made him practice with peeling tonight's various ingredients for curry. After that, the training devolved into a cooking class led by Archer. This was actually an expected turn of events considering that their training was done in the kitchen and Ise had repeatedly peeled cooking ingredients for his training.

That night, the Gremory group ate dinner that Archer had made for them.

In addition to the curry that they had initially intended to make for dinner, there were also fish and boar meat that Rias herself had caught in the mountain, some salad with a special sauce dressing made from Archer's own recipe, soup that he had taught Asia to make, pasta and finally pudding for dessert. Ise's training had produced an excess of ingredients for tonight's dinner so Archer decided to use all of them instead of wasting them.

After all, with how much energy the group had expended during the day, he was sure that everyone would be very hungry that night.

CHOMP. CHOMP. CHOMP.

SLUUURRRP.

GLUG. GLUG. GLUG.

Just as Archer had anticipated, almost everyone who had to participate in the training was eating the dinner with complete gusto though most of them still managed to eat with proper table manners. Ise and Koneko were the only ones who had abandoned such etiquette. The sound of them eating their food and the sound of cutleries clinking on plates filled the dining table as the two of them were stuffing their faces as if they were swallowing the food instead of chewing them.

Of the two of them, Koneko was the one who was emptying almost all the dishes on the table. From Archer's observation, Koneko would most likely be able to rival Saber when it comes to their appetite. As for Ise, he was eating while crying manly tears as he kept praising how delicious all the foods that were made that night. He was especially happy when he drank the soup that Asia had made in one sip and praised Asia that she would make a good wife someday which caused her to blush happily. Unfortunately, Ise didn't notice Asia's reaction and kept on eating.

_Idiot. For someone who's aim is to become a Harem King, he is clueless about the feelings of the girls around him. _Thought Archer.

Once all the food was gone, the group drank some green tea to wash down all the food in their stomachs. All of them had satisfied looks on their faces.

"Now, Ise. From today's training what have you found out?" Rias asks Ise after drinking her green tea.

Ise puts his chopsticks down before answering Rias's query.

"...I am the weakest among us." Ise said as he gave her his honest answer.

"Yes. That's for sure. It seems that you've already accepted that." Despite Rias saying such damaging words so plainly without any hesitation, Ise didn't even look dejected. Instead, there was a burning determination in his eyes that tells of his strength of will.

"Yeah. I noticed it ever since my training with Shirou and watching him sparring with Kiba and Koneko-chan but I never really accepted it until I was saved by Shirou _again_ after I was easily beaten by Raiser yesterday. I became too proud when I found out how amazing my Boosted Gear was." There was a mix of regret and resolution in Ise's eyes as he looked at his left hand where his Sacred Gear resided.

Archer who noticed this, silently approved. If yesterday's debacle was able to make Ise less impulsive in the future, then maybe it wasn't a total loss for him to have used the Dark Keys. At the very least, it seemed that Ise had matured a little. Also, it seemed that Ise had started to show signs of having a strong resolve in his heart.

"Correct. Akeno, Yuuto, Koneko and Shirou have lots of battle experience even though they have not participated in the game, so they can fight if they get used to it. But you and Asia basically don't have any experience yet. Even so, Asia's healing ability and your Boosted Gear is something that can't be ignored. Even the enemy knows that. I want you to have at least the power to run away from the enemy." Rias starts to explain to Ise her train of thought.

"I understand. Shirou always pointed out about that during our training. He always said that it's important that I have to learn how to buy myself some time to _Boost_ myself up by running, hiding, distractions and whatever else I could think of."

"Good, it seems you understand. That's right, running away is also a part of the strategy. Retreating to form a new formation is also a professional way of battling. There are ways to win a match like that. However, running away with your back facing an enemy is something quite hard. If it's an enemy with roughly the same strength as you, it's easy, but showing your back to an enemy who is far superior to you is basically asking them to kill you."

"So being able to run away from such an enemy will also be a part of your strength. Hiding and distracting the enemy to buy yourself time are also important and valid strategies. I'll make sure that all of this will be taught to you and Asia very thoroughly within these 10 days. Of course, I will also make sure that you're taught how to fight the enemy head on."

"Roger that."

"Yes."

Asia and Ise replied to Rias at the same time.

"Let's take a bath after this. It's an outdoor bath so it's wonderful." Nodding at Ise's and Asia's reply, Rias suddenly dropped an explosive statement.

Right on cue, Ise's eyes started to open wide and he started to have his usual perverted look.

Archer could easily guess what Ise was thinking so he decided to give Ise a warning. "If you try to peek on them I'll tie you to a tree for the whole night." There was no way he was going to let a pervert like Ise anywhere near Akeno when she's naked. Not without her consent at least. Akeno herself was a pervert in her own right after all.

"Ugh." Ise looked dejected at Archer's threat.

Rias however just chuckled at Ise's behaviour. "Oh, Ise. Do you want to peek at us while we are taking a bath? Then how about you bath with us? I don't mind."

Ise immediately went rigid at Rias's declaration and hope started to show in his eyes.

"How about you, Akeno?"

"I don't mind. Ufufu. I might want to wash a gentleman's back." Akeno said while sneaking a glance at Archer. It seemed that she was up to one of her tricks again. She was probably trying to gauge his reactions with her being with another man.

Despite knowing what Akeno was up to, Archer couldn't help feeling a little uncomfortable with the image of her being with someone else. Fortunately, he was able to hide his emotions beneath a mask of indifference due to centuries of mental discipline.

Ise however, didn't notice any of this drama happening in front of him and was beginning to get excited at the prospect of bathing with the girls in an open air bath.

"How about you, Asia? You should be all right if it's your beloved Ise, right?"

Asia blushed and became quiet after Rias's question, but she eventually makes a small nod with her head.

Ise started breathing hard as his excitement was reaching it's peak from having his wish of bathing with beautiful women almost coming true.

"Lastly, Koneko? How about it?"

"...No."

Ise completely deflated at Koneko's merciless final judgement which deprived him of the chance to realise one of his life's wishes.

"Then, it's a no. Too bad-"

"I don't mind Shirou-senpai, though." Koneko continued on with her sentence while cutting off Rias.

Koneko's statement made the whole room silent. No one knew had what caused such a turn of events and all of them were robbed of their words during that moment because of it. Even Archer was speechless. So far, Koneko hadn't shown any interest in him as a potential lover and now she went on to say such a daring statement. He was quite sure that Koneko never viewed him that way before and he was puzzled at what had changed that.

"SHIROU, YOU BASTARD! YOU ALREADY SANK YOUR CLAWS INSIDE KONEKO-CHAN'S INNOCENT FLESH DIDN'T YOU!?" Ise who broke the silence started accusing Archer of crimes he didn't commit while letting out tears of jealousy.

For Archer's part, he completely ignored Ise's tantrum as he judged that arguing with Ise would be counterproductive.

"Ara. Koneko-chan, since when did you started liking Shirou?" Akeno asked with a naughty face. It seemed that far from being jealous, Akeno had thought that it would be _hotter _to have a threesome instead of just her and Archer in bed. She had even started imagining Koneko in her Nekomata form with herself wearing a bunny outfit cosplay and Archer **getting it on**.

"...He was kind and would always make desserts for me." Koneko answered while her cheeks became a little red.

"Oh? How come I didn't notice this?" Rias started to be a bit excited at hearing about another person's love life.

_ No matter what kind of world or race, it seems teenage girls will always like to gossip. _Archer silently thought without letting any of his thoughts show on his face.

"...Didn't want to get in between Shirou-senpai and Akeno-senpai at first." Koneko said shyly. She suddenly looked at Akeno with a determined face. "I won't lose."

Akeno however, only looked at Koneko with an amused expression. "Ufufu. Is that so?"

"Oh, give me a break." Archer muttered under his breath so that no one would hear his complaints as he felt a headache coming on.


End file.
